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How accurate are salinity measurements around Antarctica? A machine learning based approach
  • Taimoor Sohail,
  • Jan David Zika,
  • Tobias Ehmen
Taimoor Sohail
University of New South Wales

Corresponding Author:taimoorsohail@gmail.com

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Jan David Zika
University of New South Wales
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Tobias Ehmen
Unknown
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Abstract

The Antarctic margin is a critically under-observed region despite its importance to the global climate. Here, in-situ ocean observations are difficult to obtain and clustered in easier-to-access regions. In addition, autonomous salinity measurements have to be corrected for drift or bias after collection. In this work, we introduce a new method that uses neural networks to identify and correct errors in ocean observations. Salinity estimates from a neural network trained on ship-based data are evaluated against Argo and seal measurements around Antarctica. We find that Argo salinity observations lie within the bounds of the ship-based data uncertainty, validating existing quality control processes for Argo. However, salinity data from seal-mounted sensors has a salty bias of up to 0.13 g/kg below 250m, which peaks at 5 months since sensor deployment. Our results showcase a new, flexible and computationally efficient way to assess in-situ ocean data, with potential for global implementation.