Polynomial approximation to the international equation of state for seawater

Abstract

Proposes a simple polynomial approximation to the international equation of state for seawater (IES80), which for the temperature-salinity range corresponding to the open-ocean conditions provides about the same accuracy as the IES80 (UNESCO 1981). The method computationally efficient and, as will be demonstrated, adequate for applications requiring a large number of density computations such as numerical models. Also it provides separation of the pressure dependence of the density from the temperature and salinity dependence, which allows determination of various thermodynamic coefficients of seawater in analytical form. -from Authors