scholarly journals Simulations of Processes Associated with the Fast Warming Rate of the Southern Midlatitude Ocean

2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenju Cai ◽  
Tim Cowan ◽  
Stuart Godfrey ◽  
Susan Wijffels

Abstract Significant warming has occurred across many of the world’s oceans throughout the latter part of the twentieth-century. The increase in the oceanic heat content displays a considerable spatial difference, with a maximum in the 35°–50°S midlatitude band. The relative importance of wind and surface heat flux changes in driving the warming pattern is the subject of much debate. Using wind, oceanic temperature, and heat flux outputs from twentieth-century multimodel experiments, conducted for the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the authors were able to reproduce the fast, deep warming in the midlatitude band; however, this warming is unable to be accounted for by local heat flux changes. The associated vertical structure and zonal distribution are consistent with a Sverdrup-type response to poleward-strengthening winds, with a poleward shift of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) supergyre and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. However, the shift is not adiabatic and involves a net oceanic heat content increase over the SH, which can only be forced by changes in the net surface heat flux. Counterintuitively, the heat required for the fast, deep warming is largely derived from the surface heat fluxes south of 50°S, where the surface flux into the ocean is far larger than that of the midlatitude band. The heat south of 50°S is advected northward by an enhanced northward Ekman transport induced by the poleward-strengthening winds and penetrates northward and downward along the outcropping isopycnals to a depth of over 1000 m. However, because none of the models resolve eddies and given that eddy fluxes could offset the increase in the northward Ekman transport, the heat source for the fast, deep warming in the midlatitude band could be rather different in the real world.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen F. Dacre ◽  
Simon A. Josey ◽  
Alan L. M. Grant

Abstract. The 2013/14 winter averaged sea surface temperature (SST) was anomalously cool in the mid-North Atlantic region. This season was also unusually stormy with extratropical cyclones passing over the mid-North Atlantic every 3 days. However, the processes by which cyclones contribute towards seasonal SST anomalies are not fully understood. In this paper a cyclone identification and tracking method is combined with ECMWF atmosphere and ocean reanalysis fields to calculate cyclone-relative net surface heat flux anomalies and resulting SST changes. Anomalously large negative heat fluxes are located behind the cyclones cold front resulting in anomalous cooling up to 0.2 K/day when the cyclones are at maximum intensity. This extratropical cyclone induced cold wake extends along the cyclones cold front but is small compared to climatological variability. To investigate the potential cumulative effect of the passage of multiple cyclone induced SST cooling in the same location we calculate Earth-relative net surface heat flux anomalies and resulting SST changes for the 2013/2014 winter period. Anomalously large winter averaged negative heat fluxes occur in a zonally orientated band extending across the North Atlantic between 40–60° N. The anomaly associated with cyclones is estimated using a cyclone masking technique which encompasses each cyclone centre and its trailing cold front. North Atlantic extratropical cyclones in the 2013/14 winter season account for 78 % of the observed net surface heat flux in the mid- North Atlantic and net surface heat fluxes in the 2013/14 winter season account for 70 % of the observed cooling in the mid-North Atlantic. Thus extratropical cyclones play a major role in determining the extreme 2013/2014 winter season SST cooling.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 715-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Lu ◽  
Jianzhi Dong ◽  
Susan C. Steele-Dunne

Abstract The spatial heterogeneity and temporal variation of soil moisture and surface heat fluxes are key to many geophysical and environmental studies. It has been demonstrated that they can be mapped by assimilating soil thermal and wetness information into surface energy balance models. The aim of this work is to determine whether enhancing the spatial resolution or temporal sampling frequency of soil moisture data could improve soil moisture or surface heat flux estimates. Two experiments are conducted in an area mainly covered by grassland, and land surface temperature (LST) observations from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) mission are assimilated together with either an enhanced L-band passive soil moisture product (9 km, 2–3 days) from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission or a merged product (36 km, quasi-daily) from the SMAP and the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission. The results suggest that the availability of soil moisture observations is increased by 41% after merging data from the SMAP and the SMOS missions. A comparison with results from a previous study that assimilated a coarser SMAP soil moisture product (36 km, 2–3 days) suggests that enhancing the temporal sampling frequency of soil moisture observations leads to improved soil moisture estimates at both the surface and root zone, and the largest improvement is seen in the bias metric (0.008 and 0.007 m3 m−3 on average at the surface and root zone, respectively). Enhancing the spatial resolution, however, does not significantly improve soil moisture estimates, particularly at the surface. Surface heat flux estimates from assimilating soil moisture data of different spatial or temporal resolutions are very similar.


1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 798-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Shewen ◽  
K. G. T. Hollands ◽  
G. D. Raithby

Calorimetric methods for measuring surface heat flux use Joulean heating to keep the surface isothermal. This limits them to measuring the heat flux of surfaces that are hotter than their surroundings. Presented in this paper is a method whereby reversible Peltier effect heat transfer is used to maintain this isothermality, making it suitable for surfaces that are either hotter or colder than the surroundings. The paper outlines the theory for the method and describes physical models that have been constructed, calibrated, and tested. The tested physical models were found capable of measuring heat fluxes with an absolute accuracy of 1 percent over a wide range of temperature (5–50°C) and heat flux (15–500 W/m2), while maintaining isothermality to within 0.03 K. A drawback of the method is that it appears to be suited only for measuring the heat flux from thick metallic plates.


2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakesh Kumar ◽  
Niranjan Sahoo

Coaxial thermocouple sensors are suitable for measuring highly transient surface heat fluxes because the response times of these sensors are very small (∼0.1 ms). These robust sensors have the flexibility of mounting them directly on the surface of any geometry. So, they have been routinely used in ground-based impulse facilities as temperature sensors where rapid changes in heat loads are expected on aerodynamic models. Subsequently, the surface heat fluxes are predicted from the transient temperatures by appropriate one-dimensional heat conduction modeling for semi-infinite body. In this backdrop, the purpose of this work is to design and fabricate K-type coaxial thermocouples in-house and calibrate them under similar nature of heat loads by using simple laboratory instruments. Here, two methods of dynamic calibration of coaxial thermocouples have been discussed, where the known step loads are applied through radiation and conduction modes of heat transfer. Using appropriate one dimensional heat conduction modeling, the surface heat fluxes are predicted from the measured temperature histories and subsequently compared with the input heat loads. The recovery of surface heat flux from laser based calibration experiment under-predicts by 4% from its true input heat load. Similarly, recovery of surface heat flux from the conduction mode calibration experiments under-predicts 6% from its true input value. Further, finite-element based numerical study is performed on the coaxial thermocouple model to obtain surface temperatures with same heat loads as used in the experiments. The recovery of surface temperatures from finite element simulation is achieved within an accuracy of ±0.3% from the experiment.


1964 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Becker ◽  
G. Hernborg

The present paper deals with measurements of burnout conditions for flow of boiling water in an annulus with an inner diameter of 9.92 mm, an outer diameter of 17.42 mm, and a heated length of 608 mm. Data were obtained in respect of external heating only, internal heating only, and dual uniform and nonuniform heating. The following ranges of variables were studied and 978 burnout measurements were obtained. Pressure: 8.5 < p < 37.5 kg/cm2; Inlet subcooling: 60 < Δtsub < 205 deg C; Steam quality: 0.10 < x < 0.91; Inner surface heat flux: 0 < (q/A)i < 303 W/cm2; Outer surface heat flux: 0 < (q/A)0 < 374 W/cm2; Mass velocity: 71 < m˙/F < 961 kg/m2sec. The results are presented in diagrams where the burnout steam qualities, xBO, were plotted against the pressure with the surface heat fluxes as parameters. The data have been correlated by curves. The scatter of the data around the curves is less than ±5 percent. In the case of equal heat fluxes on both walls of the annulus, burnout always occurred on the inner wall, and the data compared rather well with round duct data. When the annulus was heated internally only, the data showed very low burnout values in comparison with the results for dual heating and round ducts. This disagreement was explained by considering the climbing film flow model and by the fact that only a fraction of the channel perimeter was heated. For external heating the data are somewhat lower than corresponding round duct data, but rather high in comparison with internal heating. The climbing film flow model was also used to interpret this observation. For dual nonuniform heating it was found that the outer surface may be overloaded from 30 to 70 percent compared with the inner surface without reducing the margin of safety in respect to burnout for the annulus. It was further observed that when the heat flux for the wall on which burnout occurs is increased, the burnout steam quality for the channel decreases. If, however, the heat flux for the opposite wall is increased, the burnout steam quality also increases. It was also observed that the highest burnout values are obtained when burnout occurs simultaneously on both cylinders. Finally, the results have been compared with annuli and rod cluster data in published works, and a method for predicting burnout conditions in rod clusters has been proposed.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1329-1342
Author(s):  
W. Song ◽  
J. Lan ◽  
Q. Liu ◽  
D. Wang

Abstract. Using an observation dataset of temperature and the Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA), the decadal variability of upper ocean heat content (0–400 m; hereafter, OHC) in the South China Sea (SCS) was investigated for the period from 1958 to 2007. Decadal variability was identified as the dominant mode of upper OHC besides the seasonal cycle. According to deceasing or increasing OHC, four periods were chosen to discuss detailed processes behind OHC variability in the SCS; the four periods are 1958–1968, 1969–1981, 1982–1992, and 1993–2003. Results show that advection was the major factor for decreasing (increasing) OHC during 1958–1968 (1968–1981). During 1982–1992 and 1993–2003, the net surface heat flux was the main contributor to the variability of OHC besides the advection. The OHC, advection and net surface heat flux had significant rising tendencies during 1992–2003. The spatial characteristics of OHC variability and heat budget in the Luzon Strait, west of Luzon Island, and Xisha warm eddy region were also discussed in this paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (17) ◽  
pp. 7663-7678
Author(s):  
Zeyuan Hu ◽  
Aixue Hu ◽  
Yongyun Hu ◽  
Nan Rosenbloom

AbstractA slowdown in the rate of surface warming in the early 2000s led to renewed interest in the redistribution of ocean heat content (OHC) and its relationship with internal climate variability. We use the Community Earth System Model version 1 to study the relationship between OHC and the interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO), a major mode of decadal sea surface temperature variability in the Pacific Ocean. By comparing the relative contributions of surface heat flux and ocean dynamics to changes in OHC for different phases of the IPO, we try to identify the underlying physical processes involved. Our results suggest that during IPO phase transitions, changes of 0–300-m OHC across the northern extratropical Pacific are positively contributed by both surface heat flux and oceanic heat transport. By contrast, oceanic heat transport appears to drive the OHC changes in equatorial Pacific whereas surface heat flux acts as a damping term. During a positive IPO phase, weakened wind-driven circulation acts to increase the OHC in the equatorial Pacific while the enhanced evaporation acts to damp OHC anomalies. In the Kuroshio–Oyashio Extension region, a dipole anomaly of zonal heat advection amplifies an OHC dipole anomaly that moves eastward, while strong turbulent heat fluxes act to dampen this OHC anomaly. In the northern subtropical Pacific, both the wind-driven evaporation change and the change of zonal heat advection along Kuroshio Extension contribute to the OHC change during phase transition. For the northern subpolar Pacific, both surface heat flux and enhanced meridional advection contribute to the positive OHC anomalies during the positive IPO phase.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Lu ◽  
Susan C. Steele-Dunne ◽  
Gabriëlle J. M. De Lannoy

AbstractSurface heat fluxes are vital to hydrological and environmental studies, but mapping them accurately over a large area remains a problem. In this study, brightness temperature (TB) observations or soil moisture retrievals from the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission and land surface temperature (LST) product from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) are assimilated together into a coupled water and heat transfer model to improve surface heat flux estimates. A particle filter is used to assimilate SMAP data, while a particle smoothing method is adopted to assimilate GOES LST time series, correcting for both systematic biases via parameter updating and for short-term error via state updating. One experiment assimilates SMAP TB at horizontal polarization and GOES LST, a second experiment assimilates SMAP TB at vertical polarization and GOES LST, and a third experiment assimilates SMAP soil moisture retrievals along with GOES LST. The aim is to examine if the assimilation of physically consistent TB and LST observations could yield improved surface heat flux estimates. It is demonstrated that all three assimilation experiments improved flux estimates compared to a no-assimilation case. Assimilating TB data tends to produce smaller bias in soil moisture estimates compared to assimilating soil moisture retrievals, but the estimates are influenced by the respective bias correction approaches. Despite the differences in soil moisture estimates, the flux estimates from different assimilation experiments are in general very similar.


2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (20) ◽  
pp. 7507-7527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwayemi A. Garuba ◽  
Barry A. Klinger

Abstract Global warming induces ocean circulation changes that not only can redistribute ocean reservoir temperature stratification but also change the total heat content anomaly of the ocean. Here all consequences of this process are referred to collectively as “redistribution.” Previous model studies of redistributive effects could not measure the net global contribution to the amount of ocean heat uptake by redistribution. In this study, a global ocean model experiment with abrupt increase in surface temperature is conducted with a new passive tracer formulation. This separates ocean heat uptake into contributions due to redistribution temperature and surface heat flux anomalies and those due to the passive advection and mixing of surface heat flux anomalies forced in the atmosphere. For a decline in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation of about 40%, redistribution nearly doubles the Atlantic passive anomalous surface heat input and depth penetration of temperature anomalies. However, smaller increases in the Indian and Pacific Oceans cause the net global redistributive contribution to be only 25% of the passive contribution. Despite the much larger anomalous surface heat input in the Atlantic, the Pacific gains heat content anomaly similar to that in the Atlantic because of export from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans via the global conveyor belt. Of this interbasin heat transport, most of the passive component comes from the Indian Ocean and the redistributive component comes from the Atlantic.


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