Spatial structure of low salinity submesoscale features and their interactions with a coastal current

Highlights

• Ocean glider observations have identified that low-salinity submesoscale features (river 'whirls and swirls') can travel further into the ocean than previously thought - in some cases up to 100km. This is a first for a New Zealand shelf sea (the Greater Cook Strait)
• Without new tools or technology, like glider observations, we would not have been able to know this
• Almost three-quarters of the low salinity features detected by the gliders did not have surface temperature signature
• Therefore, traditional methods of using satellites in space to track the whirls and swirls isn't always possible because there isn't a temperature signature 
• These whirls and swirls stay close to the surface of the water, increasing stable stratification in the upper water column.

Keywords

land-sea interaction, primary production, glider observations, low-salinity submesoscale features