Salinity signature of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Three sites in the North Pacific have temperature and salinity observations in most months for several years before and after 1977. The Gulf of Alaska station (57 degrees N, 148 degrees W) showed a 2 degrees C warming and a 0 .6 freshening in salinity at 10 m depth in the 1980s compared to the 1970s. OWS PAPA (50 degrees N, 145 degrees W) and PAPA line station 7 (49.1 degre es N, 132.4 degrees W) show warming of 0.6 degrees C and 0.9 degrees C, wit h no major salinity change. The decrease in density and increase in stratif ication in the Gulf of Alaska after 1977 corresponds primarily to a decreas e in salinity in the upper 150 m. We propose that while the Pacific Decadal Oscillation has an east/west character in temperature, the salinity signat ure will have a NNW/SSE character, similar to the pattern of interannual va riability in precipitation.