scholarly journals Ocean Heat Uptake and Interbasin Transport of the Passive and Redistributive Components of Surface Heating

2016 ◽  
Vol 29 (20) ◽  
pp. 7507-7527 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwayemi A. Garuba ◽  
Barry A. Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Input ◽  
Surface Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Passive Component ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Anomalous Surface ◽  
Heat Uptake

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.

scholarly journals The Deep-Ocean Heat Uptake in Transient Climate Change

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1352-1363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boyin Huang ◽  
Peter H. Stone ◽  
Andrei P. Sokolov ◽  
Igor V. Kamenkovich
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Surface Heat Flux ◽  
Coupled Model ◽  
Deep Ocean ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Warming Scenario ◽  
Heat Uptake ◽  
Global Warming Scenario

Abstract The deep-ocean heat uptake (DOHU) in transient climate changes is studied using an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) and its adjoint. The model configuration consists of idealized Pacific and Atlantic basins. The model is forced with the anomalies of surface heat and freshwater fluxes from a global warming scenario with a coupled model using the same ocean configuration. In the global warming scenario, CO2 concentration increases 1% yr−1. The heat uptake calculated from the coupled model and from the adjoint are virtually identical, showing that the heat uptake by the OGCM is a linear process. After 70 yr the ocean heat uptake is almost evenly distributed within the layers above 200 m, between 200 and 700 m, and below 700 m (about 20 × 1022 J in each). The effect of anomalous surface freshwater flux on the DOHU is negligible. Analysis of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP-2) data for the same global warming scenario shows that qualitatively similar results apply to coupled atmosphere–ocean GCMs. The penetration of surface heat flux to the deep ocean in the OGCM occurs mainly in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean, since both the sensitivity of DOHU to the surface heat flux and the magnitude of anomalous surface heat flux are large in these two regions. The DOHU relies on the reduction of convection and Gent–McWilliams–Redi mixing in the North Atlantic, and the reduction of Gent–McWilliams–Redi mixing in the Southern Ocean.

scholarly journals The Role of Individual Surface Flux Components in the Passive and Active Ocean Heat Uptake

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (15) ◽  
pp. 6157-6173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwayemi A. Garuba ◽  
Barry A. Klinger
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Surface Heat Flux ◽  
Active Component ◽  
Surface Flux ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Heat Gain ◽  
Circulation Change ◽  
Heat Uptake

Surface flux perturbations (heat, freshwater, and wind) due to an increase of atmospheric CO2 cause significant intermodel spread in ocean heat uptake; however, the mechanism underlying their impact is not very well understood. Here, we use ocean model experiments to isolate the impact of each perturbation on the ocean heat uptake components, focusing on surface heat flux anomalies caused directly by atmospheric CO2 increase (passive) and indirectly by ocean circulation change (active). Surface heat flux perturbations cause the passive heat uptake, while all the surface flux perturbations influence ocean heat uptake through the active component. While model results have implied that the active component increases ocean heat uptake because of the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), we find that it depends more on the shallow circulation change patterns. Surface heat flux perturbation causes most of the AMOC weakening, yet it causes a net global active heat loss (12% of the total uptake), which occurs because the active heat loss in the tropical Pacific through the subtropical cell weakening is greater than the active heat gain in the subpolar Atlantic through AMOC weakening. Freshwater perturbation weakens the AMOC a little more, but increases the subpolar Atlantic heat uptake a great deal through a large weakening of the subpolar gyre, thereby causing a large global active heat gain (34% of the total uptake). Wind perturbation also causes an active heat loss largely through the poleward shift of the Southern Hemisphere subtropical cells.

Estimating Global Ocean Heat Content Changes in the Upper 1800 m since 1950 and the Influence of Climatology Choice*

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 1945-1957 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Lyman ◽  
Gregory C. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Heat Content ◽  
Ocean Heat Content ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Ocean Temperature ◽  
Vertical Separation ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Expendable Bathythermograph ◽  
Heat Uptake ◽  
The Mean

Abstract Ocean heat content anomalies are analyzed from 1950 to 2011 in five distinct depth layers (0–100, 100–300, 300–700, 700–900, and 900–1800 m). These layers correspond to historic increases in common maximum sampling depths of ocean temperature measurements with time, as different instruments—mechanical bathythermograph (MBT), shallow expendable bathythermograph (XBT), deep XBT, early sometimes shallower Argo profiling floats, and recent Argo floats capable of worldwide sampling to 2000 m—have come into widespread use. This vertical separation of maps allows computation of annual ocean heat content anomalies and their sampling uncertainties back to 1950 while taking account of in situ sampling advances and changing sampling patterns. The 0–100-m layer is measured over 50% of the globe annually starting in 1956, the 100–300-m layer starting in 1967, the 300–700-m layer starting in 1983, and the deepest two layers considered here starting in 2003 and 2004, during the implementation of Argo. Furthermore, global ocean heat uptake estimates since 1950 depend strongly on assumptions made concerning changes in undersampled or unsampled ocean regions. If unsampled areas are assumed to have zero anomalies and are included in the global integrals, the choice of climatological reference from which anomalies are estimated can strongly influence the global integral values and their trend: the sparser the sampling and the bigger the mean difference between climatological and actual values, the larger the influence.

On the Hyperbolicity of the Bulk Air–Sea Heat Flux Functions: Insights into the Efficiency of Air–Sea Moisture Disequilibrium for Tropical Cyclone Intensification

2021 ◽  
Vol 149 (5) ◽  
pp. 1517-1534
Author(s):  
Benjamin Jaimes de la Cruz ◽  
Lynn K. Shay ◽  
Joshua B. Wadler ◽  
Johna E. Rudzin
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclone ◽  
Surface Wind ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Surface Heat Fluxes ◽  
Heat Uptake ◽  
Moisture Fluxes ◽  
New Perspective

AbstractSea-to-air heat fluxes are the energy source for tropical cyclone (TC) development and maintenance. In the bulk aerodynamic formulas, these fluxes are a function of surface wind speed U10 and air–sea temperature and moisture disequilibrium (ΔT and Δq, respectively). Although many studies have explained TC intensification through the mutual dependence between increasing U10 and increasing sea-to-air heat fluxes, recent studies have found that TC intensification can occur through deep convective vortex structures that obtain their local buoyancy from sea-to-air moisture fluxes, even under conditions of relatively low wind. Herein, a new perspective on the bulk aerodynamic formulas is introduced to evaluate the relative contribution of wind-driven (U10) and thermodynamically driven (ΔT and Δq) ocean heat uptake. Previously unnoticed salient properties of these formulas, reported here, are as follows: 1) these functions are hyperbolic and 2) increasing Δq is an efficient mechanism for enhancing the fluxes. This new perspective was used to investigate surface heat fluxes in six TCs during phases of steady-state intensity (SS), slow intensification (SI), and rapid intensification (RI). A capping of wind-driven heat uptake was found during periods of SS, SI, and RI. Compensation by larger values of Δq > 5 g kg−1 at moderate values of U10 led to intense inner-core moisture fluxes of greater than 600 W m−2 during RI. Peak values in Δq preferentially occurred over oceanic regimes with higher sea surface temperature (SST) and upper-ocean heat content. Thus, increasing SST and Δq is a very effective way to increase surface heat fluxes—this can easily be achieved as a TC moves over deeper warm oceanic regimes.

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
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Heat Flux ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Ekman Transport ◽  
Content Increase ◽  
Intergovernmental Panel ◽  
Zonal Distribution

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.

Historical ocean heat uptake in CMIP6 Earth System models: global and regional perspectives

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Till Kuhlbrodt ◽  
Aurore Voldoire ◽  
Matthew Palmer ◽  
Rachel Killick ◽  
Colin Jones
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Earth System ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Heat Uptake ◽  
Earth System Models

<p>Ocean heat content is arguably one of the most relevant metrics for tracking global climate change and in particular the current global heating. Because of its enormous heat capacity, the global ocean stores about 93 percent of the excess heat in the Earth System. Time series of global ocean heat content (OHC) closely track Earth’s energy imbalance as observed as the net radiative balance at the top of the atmosphere. For these reasons simulated OHC time series are a cornerstone for assessing the scientific performance of Earth System models (ESM) and global climate models. Here we present a detailed analysis of the OHC change in simulations of the historical climate (20<sup>th</sup> century up to 2014) performed with four of the current, state-of-the art generation of ESMs and climate models. These four models are UKESM1, HadGEM3-GC3.1-LL, CNRM-ESM2-1 and CNRM-CM6-1. All four share the same ocean component, NEMO3.6 in the shaconemo eORCA1 configuration, and they all take part in CMIP6, the current Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Analysing a small number of models gives us the opportunity to analyse OHC change for the global ocean as well as for individual ocean basins. In addition to the ensemble means, we focus on some individual ensemble members for a more detailed process understanding. For the global ocean, the two CNRM models reproduce the observed OHC change since the 1960s closely, especially in the top 700 m of the ocean. The two UK models (UKESM1 and HadGEM3-GC3.1-LL) do not simulate the observed global ocean warming in the 1970s and 1980s, and they warm too fast after 1991. We analyse how this varied performance across the models relates to the simulated radiative forcing of the atmosphere. All four models show a smaller ocean heat uptake since 1971, and a larger transient climate response (TCR), than the CMIP5 ensemble mean. Close analysis of a few individual ensemble members indicates a dominant role of heat uptake and deep-water formation processes in the Southern Ocean for variability and change in global OHC. Evaluating OHC change in individual ocean basins reveals that the lack of warming in the UK models stems from the Pacific and Indian basins, while in the Atlantic the OHC change 1971-2014 is close to the observed value. Resolving the ocean warming in depth and time shows that regional ocean heat uptake in the North Atlantic plays a substantial role in compensating small warming rates elsewhere. An opposite picture emerges from the CNRM models. Here the simulated OHC change is close to observations in the Pacific and Indian basins, while tending to be too small in the Atlantic, indicating a markedly different role for the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and cross-equatorial heat transport in these models.</p>

Recent trajectory of ocean heat uptake estimated from novel 1972-2017 ocean sea-ice model hindcast simulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurice Huguenin ◽  
Ryan Holmes ◽  
Matthew England
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Sea Ice ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Anthropogenic Heat ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Heat Uptake ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
And Storage ◽  
Ice Model

<p>Uptake and storage of heat by the ocean plays a critical role in modulating the Earth's climate system. In the last 50 years, the ocean has absorbed over 90% of the additional energy accumulating in the Earth system due to radiative imbalance. However, our knowledge about ocean heat uptake (OHU), transport and storage is strongly constrained by the sparse observational record with large uncertainties. In this study, we conduct a suite of historical 1972–2017 hindcast simulations using a global ocean-sea ice model that are specifically designed to account for a cold start climate and model drift. The hindcast simulations are initialised from an equilibrated control simulation that uses repeat decade forcing over the period 1962-1971. This repeat decade forcing approach is a compromise between an early unobserved period (where our confidence in the forcing is low) and later periods (which would result in a shorter experiment period and a smaller fraction of the total OHU). The simulations are aimed at giving a good estimate of the trajectory of OHU in the tropics, the extratropics and individual ocean basins in recent decades. Many modelling studies that look at recent OHU rates so far use a simpler approach for the forcing. For example, they use repeating cycles of 1950-2010 Coordinated Ocean Reference Experiment (CORE) forcing that is consistent with the Ocean Model Intercomparison Project 2 (OMIP-2). However, this approach cannot account for model drift. The new simulations here highlight the dominant role of the extratropics, and in particular the Southern Ocean in OHU. In contrast, little heat is absorbed in the tropics and simulations forced with only tropical trends in atmospheric forcing show only weak global ocean heat content trends. Almost 50% of the heat taken up from the atmosphere in the Southern Ocean is transported into the Atlantic Ocean. Two-thirds of this Southern Ocean-sourced heat is then subsequently lost to the atmosphere in the North Atlantic but nevertheless this basin gains heat overall. Our results help to estimate the large-scale cycling of anthropogenic heat within the ocean today and have implications for heat content trends under a changing climate.</p>

scholarly journals Decadal variability of heat content in South China Sea inferred from observation data and an ocean data assimilation product

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1329-1342
Author(s):  
W. Song ◽  
J. Lan ◽  
Q. Liu ◽  
D. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
South China Sea ◽  
South China ◽  
Surface Heat Flux ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Heat Content ◽  
Surface Heat ◽  
China Sea ◽  
Ocean Data Assimilation

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.

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