Salinity (%) to Practical salinity units Converter

Enter a value in salinity (%) to convert it to practical salinity units, parts per thousand.

How to use

  1. Enter your values in the fields above.
  2. Press Calculate to see your result instantly.
  3. Use the Share button to copy a link to your result.

About this calculator

Modern oceanography measures seawater salt content as Practical Salinity Units (PSU), derived from the Practical Salinity Scale (PSS-78) by comparing a sample's electrical conductivity to a standard KCl solution — a method precise and repeatable enough to have replaced older chemical (chlorinity-based) salinity determinations. PSU is dimensionless but numerically tracks almost 1:1 with the older “parts per thousand (‰)” convention, since both center on average open-ocean salinity of about 35.

Oceanographers and marine biologists rely on PSU readings from CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) instruments to study water-mass mixing, density-driven currents, and habitat suitability for marine species, converting between salinity percentage and PSU when reconciling older records with modern conductivity-based data.

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