3D Dynamics of Freshwater Plumes Produced by Convective Rains Alexander Soloviev a,b, Cayla Dean a, Silvia Matt a,c, Atsushi Fujimura b a Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center, Dania Beach, FL, USA b Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science, Miami, FL, USA c now at Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS, USA Sea Surface Salinity Team 18 November 2014 San Francisco, CA Special thanks to Roger Lukas and Lisan Yiu

Freshwater plume observed during TOGA COARE (no substantial diurnal warming) (Soloviev and Lukas, 1997)

Model domain for simulation of freshwater plume

U 10 = 8 m/s

Convective rains within ITCZ produce localized freshwater lenses, which have tendency to spread horizontally Lenses resemble gravity currents and can interact with wind stress [and ambient stratification] 3D processes are noticeably involved (unless lens has achieved a compensated state) Model results suggest that freshwater lenses can significantly evolve on time scale O(1 hr) Conclusions

Acknowledgements This work was initiated as a follow up on the NASA SPURS-2 Planning Meeting April, Pasadena, CA attended by one of the authors (Soloviev). We acknowledge support by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Consortium for Advanced Research on the Transport of Hydrocarbons in the Environment (PI: Tamay Özgökmen, UM). Silvia Matt has been supported by NRC Research Associateship.