Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010
Adynamically and data-consistent ocean state estimate during 1993-2010 is analyzed for bidecadal changes in the mechanisms of heat exchange between the upper and lower oceans. Many patterns of change are consistent with prior studies. However, at various levels above 1800m the global integral of the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
American Meteorological Society
2018
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114589 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 |
| _version_ | 1826192050484150272 |
|---|---|
| author | Liang, Xinfeng Piecuch, Christopher G. Ponte, Rui M. Heimbach, Patrick Forget, Gael Wunsch, Carl Isaac |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Liang, Xinfeng Piecuch, Christopher G. Ponte, Rui M. Heimbach, Patrick Forget, Gael Wunsch, Carl Isaac |
| author_sort | Liang, Xinfeng |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Adynamically and data-consistent ocean state estimate during 1993-2010 is analyzed for bidecadal changes in the mechanisms of heat exchange between the upper and lower oceans. Many patterns of change are consistent with prior studies. However, at various levels above 1800m the global integral of the change in ocean vertical heat flux involves the summation of positive and negative regional contributions and is not statistically significant. The nonsignificance of change in the global ocean vertical heat transport from an ocean state estimate that provides global coverage and regular sampling, spatially and temporally, raises the question of whether an adequate observational database exists to assess changes in the upper ocean heat content over the past few decades. Also, whereas the advective term largely determines the spatial pattern of the change in ocean vertical heat flux, its global integral is not significantly different from zero. In contrast, the diffusive term, although regionally weak except in high-latitude oceans, produces a statistically significant extra downward heat flux during the 2000s. This result suggests that besides ocean advection, ocean mixing processes, including isopycnal and diapycnal as well as convective mixing, are important for the decadal variation of the heat exchange between upper and deep oceans as well. Furthermore, the analyses herein indicate that focusing on any particular region in explaining changes of the global ocean heat content is misleading. Keywords: Mixing; Ocean circulation; Climate variability; Data assimilation; Decadal variability |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:05:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/114589 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:05:32Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1145892022-09-26T10:22:47Z Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 Liang, Xinfeng Piecuch, Christopher G. Ponte, Rui M. Heimbach, Patrick Forget, Gael Wunsch, Carl Isaac Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Forget, Gael Wunsch, Carl Isaac Adynamically and data-consistent ocean state estimate during 1993-2010 is analyzed for bidecadal changes in the mechanisms of heat exchange between the upper and lower oceans. Many patterns of change are consistent with prior studies. However, at various levels above 1800m the global integral of the change in ocean vertical heat flux involves the summation of positive and negative regional contributions and is not statistically significant. The nonsignificance of change in the global ocean vertical heat transport from an ocean state estimate that provides global coverage and regular sampling, spatially and temporally, raises the question of whether an adequate observational database exists to assess changes in the upper ocean heat content over the past few decades. Also, whereas the advective term largely determines the spatial pattern of the change in ocean vertical heat flux, its global integral is not significantly different from zero. In contrast, the diffusive term, although regionally weak except in high-latitude oceans, produces a statistically significant extra downward heat flux during the 2000s. This result suggests that besides ocean advection, ocean mixing processes, including isopycnal and diapycnal as well as convective mixing, are important for the decadal variation of the heat exchange between upper and deep oceans as well. Furthermore, the analyses herein indicate that focusing on any particular region in explaining changes of the global ocean heat content is misleading. Keywords: Mixing; Ocean circulation; Climate variability; Data assimilation; Decadal variability 2018-04-06T14:38:09Z 2018-04-06T14:38:09Z 2017-06 2017-03 2018-03-30T17:24:07Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0894-8755 1520-0442 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114589 Liang, Xinfeng et al. “Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010.” Journal of Climate 30, 14 (July 2017): 5319–5327 © 2017 American Meteorological Society https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0569.1 Journal of Climate Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society |
| spellingShingle | Liang, Xinfeng Piecuch, Christopher G. Ponte, Rui M. Heimbach, Patrick Forget, Gael Wunsch, Carl Isaac Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title | Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title_full | Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title_fullStr | Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title_short | Change of the Global Ocean Vertical Heat Transport over 1993–2010 |
| title_sort | change of the global ocean vertical heat transport over 1993 2010 |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/114589 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6808-3664 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT liangxinfeng changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 AT piecuchchristopherg changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 AT ponteruim changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 AT heimbachpatrick changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 AT forgetgael changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 AT wunschcarlisaac changeoftheglobaloceanverticalheattransportover19932010 |