Drivers of interannual salinity variability in the Arctic Ocean

Accurate projections and attributions of Arctic ocean changes in climate models require a good understanding of the mechanisms underlying interannual salinity variability in the region. Although some mechanisms have been extensively studied in idealized settings, in particular for the dynamics of the Beaufort Gyre (BG), their applicability to the more complex system remains unclear. This study introduces a new diagnostic based on the salinity variance budget to robustly assess the mechanisms of salinity variations. The diagnostic is then applied to the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean state estimate. 
The results indicate that the advection of salinity anomalies in the direction of the mean salinity gradient, produced by velocity anomalies is the primary source of interannual salinity variability. These velocities are primarily caused by fluctuating winds via Ekman transports.
Fluctuating surface freshwater fluxes from the atmosphere and sea ice are the second most important source of variability and cannot be neglected. The two sinks of interannual salinity variance are associated with the erosion of large-scale  mean circulation gradients by eddies and to a lesser extent to the diffusive terms. Over continental shelves, particularly over the East Siberian Shelf (ESS), ocean surface freshwater fluxes and diffusion play a more important role than in the deep basins.
We also report a strong intensification of all sources and sinks of interannual salinity variability in the BG and an opposite weakening in the ESS in the second decade of the analysis (2004-2014) with respect to the first (1993-2003).