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Upper ocean heat budget in the southeast Pacific stratus cloud region using eddy-resolving HYCOM
Toshiaki Shinoda, Yangxing Zheng, George N. Kiladis, Jialin Lin, E. Joseph Metzger, Harley E. Hurlburt, and Benjamin S. Giese
Naval Research Laboratory
(Abstract received 05/08/2009 for session X)
ABSTRACT
The annual mean heat budget of the upper ocean under the stratocumulus/stratus cloud deck in the southeast Pacific is estimated using SODA and an eddy-resolving HYCOM. Both are compared with estimates based on WHOI IMET buoy observations at 80oW, 20oS. Net surface heat fluxes are positive (warming) over most of the area under the stratus cloud deck. Upper ocean processes responsible for balancing the surface heat flux are examined by estimating each term in the heat equation. In contrast to surface heat fluxes, geostrophic transport in the upper 50 m causes net cooling in most of the stratus cloud deck region. Ekman transport provides net warming north of the IMET site and net cooling south of the IMET site. Although the eddy heat flux divergence term can be comparable to other terms at a particular location such as at the IMET mooring site, it is negligible for the entire stratus region when area averaged, since it is not spatially coherent in the open ocean. While cold core eddies are often generated near the coast in the eddy-resolving model, they do not significantly impact the heat budget in the open ocean in the southeast Pacific.
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2009 LOM Workshop, Miami, Florida Jume 1 - 3, 2009