Sea surface salinity
Sea surface salinity (raw)
PSUkey sss_psuno NERC concept says exactly thisseries sss_psu
CalCOFI holds 32,984 values of it from 32,984 sampling events in one dataset, 2010–2021, at the surface.R Salinity tags the water masses: the California Current carries fresher Subarctic water south and the Undercurrent carries saltier water from the south; with temperature it sets density.C
- 32,984
- values
- 0
- flagged
- 2010–2021
- years
- 1
- dataset
- surface
- depth
- 8 of 12
- months
Measured in
1 dataset
i
One row per series, one cell per year, darker with more values — the same strip the front
door draws per dataset and a species page draws per taxon. Each row is one dataset's own
measurement_type; the label is written once, in the title above.
i
One row per series, one cell per year, darker with more values — the same strip the front door draws per dataset and a species page draws per taxon. Each row is one dataset's own measurement_type; the label is written once, in the title above.
-
series
sss_psu· source columnsss_psuno flag at this grain no P01 concept
Explorerdb-queryERDDAPThis page as JSON R · Python · Parquet
Every way in 7 ways · ERDDAP · Parquet · R · Python · JSON
Read from measurements.json of release v2026.11.05, written at release by calcofi4db::build_measurements_catalog() beside taxa.json. The catalog's index is /measurements/; the JSON-LD on this page is a schema.org/DefinedTerm in the NERC P01 term set with a PropertyValue per series.
Explorerdb-querySELECT * FROM read_json('…/v2026.11.05/catalog.json')
-- objects[] WHERE table = 'obs_env'
-- AND partition_value = 'sss_psu'library(calcofi4r)
con <- cc_get_db() # the promoted release
tbl(con, "obs_env") |> filter(measurement_type %in% c("sss_psu"))import calcofi4py as cc
con = cc.cc_get_db()
con.sql("SELECT * FROM obs_env WHERE measurement_type IN ('sss_psu')").df()The structure salinity’s, standing in
ChEBI: “A sulfur oxoanion obtained by deprotonation of both OH groups of sulfuric acid.” · RDKit 2026.03.6 from the ChEBI molfile, in the page’s ink · CC BY 4.0. ChEBI’s roles are never shown.
How it is measured underway intake
Why it matters 5 ways to say it · EOV Subsurface salinity
the GOOS specification sheet for this Essential Ocean Variable lists it
other ways to say why · 4
- Surface salinity from the underway line covers the track between stations, where the casts say nothing. needs a citation before it can be the pick
- Salinity and temperature together set seawater’s density, which drives the currents and decides how deep winter mixing reaches. needs a citation before it can be the pick
- Wikipedia Water mass source
- Wikipedia Salinity is the saltiness or amount of salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water. It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg. Salinity · CC BY-SA 4.0 · rev. 1368851206
The record’s own history no climatology to depart from
Each year against the normal i
i
The release builds no climatology for this measurement, so there is no normal to draw a departure from.
Units and range PSU · 0 … 45 declared · 0 flagged
PSU
details
- bounds
- The registry declares
0 … 45 PSUforsss_psu; a value outside it is dropped at the ingest (drop_out_of_bounds()). - observed
- Underway Meteorological (METS)
sss_psu0.6585 · median 33.3 · 36.73 PSU (5th–95th percentile 15.7–33.65) - flags
- Underway Meteorological (METS)
sss_psucarries no quality code at the release grain; qual_ok keeps all 32,984. - baseline
- No climatology row is built for this measurement, so the Explorer draws values, not anomalies.
The familiar scale i
Bars are each series' 5th–95th percentile, the line its minimum to maximum, the ring its median;
the marks are metadata/measurement_scale.csv's, each hovering to its own source.
i
Bars are each series' 5th–95th percentile, the line its minimum to maximum, the ring its median;
the marks are metadata/measurement_scale.csv's, each hovering to its own source.
By depth · by month surface · 8 of 12 months
By depth i
Values per depth band at the release grain, one thin bar per series. The bands are the
record's own (0-10 … 2000+ m).
i
Values per depth band at the release grain, one thin bar per series. The bands are the record's own (0-10 … 2000+ m).
By month i
Values per calendar month, one row per series: CalCOFI's quarterly cruises show as peaks in
the months the ships sail.
i
Values per calendar month, one row per series: CalCOFI's quarterly cruises show as peaks in the months the ships sail.
Cite the release, v2026.11.05
Cite the release; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page — Underway Meteorological (METS). The Explorer's Share → Cite writes it for the view you make.