Assessing the Impact of Freshwater Fluxes from Major Rivers on the Atlantic Ocean

Abstract. This study evaluates the impact of freshwater fluxes on the Atlantic Ocean. The river discharge has been estimated at the outlet of 18 major rivers flowing into the Atlantic by solving the water mass balance equation at the river basin scale. In this approach, water storage changes are evaluated with satellite gravimetry measurements. In contrast, atmospheric fluxes (i.e., precipitation, evapotranspiration) are assessed with atmospheric reanalyses, in situ measurements from a global network of rain gauges, or a global hydrological model. The river discharge estimated with the water mass balance is consistent with independent river gauge measurements across all South American rivers, in particular the Amazon, where the annual and monthly climatology can be estimated with an error of less than 5 % when compared with in situ measurements. Larger discrepancies are observed for other basins, likely due to uncertainties in the precipitation and evapotranspiration fluxes. When climatological estimates of the river discharge are replaced by the water mass balance approach in ocean model simulations, a decrease in the sea surface salinity bias is observed at the outlet of the Amazon and across the whole Atlantic. The water mass balance approach can bring new observational constraints on freshwater fluxes flowing from the continent to the ocean, but is not universally reliable due to potential biases in atmospheric flux estimates. When combined with in situ measurements or hydrological model predictions, the water mass balance approach can enhance freshwater flux quantification, leading to improved ocean model simulations near major river outlets. In particular, the enhanced river runoff dataset significantly reduces salinity biases, with associated changes in reduced vertical stratification, enhanced upper ocean circulation, and meridional transports.