The absolute salinity of seawater and its measurands

摘要

Salinity is an essential quantity to calculate many of the physical properties of oceans, but it is also a quantity hard to define considering the complexity of this material in its bio-geo-chemical composition and the imperfections of the existing measurement techniques. The TEOS-10 gives several definitions to the notion of absolute salinity, usable in the function of the properties to study, but they are based on the concept of a constant elemental composition of seawater, so that, if its major inorganic components are well known, its real composition varies in time and space and its determination is still a challenge.