scholarly journals The bulk parameterizations of turbulent air-sea fluxes in NEMO4: the origin of Sea Surface Temperature differences in a global model study

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Bonino ◽  
Doroteaciro Iovino ◽  
Laurent Brodeau ◽  
Simona Masina
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Skin Temperature ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Turbulent Heat Flux ◽  
Global Model ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Turbulent Heat

Abstract. Wind stress and turbulent heat fluxes are the major driving forces which modify the ocean dynamics and thermodynamics. In the NEMO ocean general circulation model, these turbulent air-sea fluxes (TASFs), which are components of the ocean model boundary conditions, can critically impact the simulated ocean characteristics. This paper investigates how the different bulk parametrizations to calculated turbulent air-sea fluxes in the NEMO4 (revision 12957) drives substantial differences in sea surface temperature (SST). Specifically, we study the contribution of different aspects and assumptions of the bulk parametrizations in driving the SST differences in NEMO global model configuration at ¼ degree of horizontal resolution. These include the use of the skin temperature instead of the bulk SST in the computation of turbulent heat flux components, the estimation of wind stress and the estimation of turbulent heat flux components which vary in each parametrization due to the different computation of the bulk transfer coefficients. The analysis of a set of short-term sensitivity experiments, where the only experimental change is related to one of the aspects of the bulk parametrizations, shows that parametrization-related SST differences are primarily sensitive to the wind stress differences across parametrizations and to the implementation of skin temperature in the computation of turbulent heat flux components. Moreover, in order to highlight the role of SST-turbulent heat flux negative feedback at play in ocean simulations, we compare the TASFs differences obtained using NEMO ocean model with the estimations from Brodeau et al. (2017), who compared the different bulk parametrizations using prescribed SST. Our estimations of turbulent heat flux differences between bulk parametrizations is weaker with respect to Brodeau et al. (2017) differences estimations.

scholarly journals Processes Controlling Sea Surface Temperature Variability of Ningaloo Niño

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 4369-4389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaru Guo ◽  
Yuanlong Li ◽  
Fan Wang ◽  
Yuntao Wei ◽  
Zengrui Rong
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
Sst Warming ◽  
Latent Heat Loss

AbstractA high-resolution (3–8 km) regional oceanic general circulation model is utilized to understand the sea surface temperature (SST) variability of Ningaloo Niño in the southeast Indian Ocean (SEIO). The model reproduces eight Ningaloo Niño events with good fidelity and reveals complicated spatial structures. Mesoscale noises are seen in the warming signature and confirmed by satellite microwave SST data. Model experiments are carried out to quantitatively evaluate the effects of key processes. The results reveal that the surface turbulent heat flux (primarily latent heat flux) is the most important process (contribution > 68%) in driving and damping the SST warming for most events, while the roles of the Indonesian Throughflow (~15%) and local wind forcing are secondary. A suitable air temperature warming is essential to reproducing the reduced surface latent heat loss during the growth of SST warming (~66%), whereas the effect of the increased air humidity is negligibly small (1%). The established SST warming in the mature phase causes increased latent heat loss that initiates the decay of warming. A 20-member ensemble simulation is performed for the 2010/11 super Ningaloo Niño, which confirms the strong influence of ocean internal processes in the redistribution of SST warming signatures. Oceanic eddies can dramatically modulate the magnitudes of local SST warming, particularly in offshore areas where the “signal-to-noise” ratio is low, raising a caution for evaluating the predictability of Ningaloo Niño and its environmental consequences.

scholarly journals Estimating Air–Sea Heat Fluxes in Semienclosed Basins: The Case of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba)

2009 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Ben-Sasson ◽  
Steve Brenner ◽  
Nathan Paldor
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Heat Balance ◽  
Evaporation Rate ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Turbulent Heat ◽  
The Heat Balance

Abstract Meteorological and oceanographic data collected at the head of the Gulf of Elat were used to compute the air–sea heat flux components and the heat storage in the water column, which are in turn used to estimate the heat balance of this semienclosed basin. The solar radiation was measured directly, whereas the longwave (LW) cooling and the turbulent heat fluxes (latent, LH; sensible, SH) were computed from commonly used bulk formulas. Nine formulas for LW and four formulas for LH + SH were tested for a total of 36 possible combinations. Independent estimates for the bounds on the advective heat flux through the straits and results from a one-dimensional mixed layer model provided criteria to help identify the best choice of bulk formulas for the gulf. It was concluded that the LW formula of Bignami together with the turbulent flux formulas of Kondo provide the best estimate of the heat balance of the gulf. Based on this, the annual mean evaporation is 1.6–1.8 m yr−1, with a minimum of 1 m yr−1 in (the long) summer and a maximum of 3–4 m yr−1 in (the short) winter. The increase in evaporation rate during the winter results from the instability of the atmosphere at that time when the sea surface temperature exceeds the air temperature; in the summer, when the air temperature is much higher than the sea surface temperature, evaporation nearly stops due to the atmospheric stability. This estimated evaporation rate for the gulf, which is similar for all four of the LH formulas considered, is significantly smaller than values commonly quoted in the literature. Finally, in contrast to previous studies, it is found that the advective heat flux from the Straits of Tiran is large and significant in spring, reaching an estimated value of over 125 W m−2, but its annually averaged value is only about 35–40 W m−2.

scholarly journals Coupling Ocean Currents and Waves with Wind Stress over the Gulf Stream

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qi Shi ◽  
Mark A. Bourassa
Keyword(s):  
Heat Flux ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Latent Heat Flux ◽  
Wind Stress ◽  
Gulf Stream ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Current Stress ◽  
Induced Changes

This study provides the first detailed analysis of oceanic and atmospheric responses to the current-stress, wave-stress, and wave-current-stress interactions around the Gulf Stream using a high-resolution three-way coupled regional modeling system. In general, our results highlight the substantial impact of coupling currents and/or waves with wind stress on the air–sea fluxes over the Gulf Stream. The stress and the curl of the stress are crucial to mixed-layer energy budgets and sea surface temperature. In the wave-current-stress coupled experiment, wind stress increased by 15% over the Gulf Stream. Alternating positive and negative bands of changes of Ekman-related vertical velocity appeared in response to the changes of the wind stress curl along the Gulf Stream, with magnitudes exceeding 0.3 m/day (the 95th percentile). The response of wind stress and its curl to the wave-current-stress coupling was not a linear combination of responses to the wave-stress coupling and the current-stress coupling because the ocean and wave induced changes in the atmosphere showed substantial feedback on the ocean. Changes of a latent heat flux in excess of 20 W/m2 and a sensible heat flux in excess of 5 W/m2 were found over the Gulf Stream in all coupled experiments. Sensitivity tests show that sea surface temperature (SST) induced difference of air–sea humidity is a major contributor to latent heat flux (LHF) change. Validation is challenging because most satellite observations lack the spatial resolution to resolve the current-induced changes in wind stress curls and heat fluxes. Scatterometer observations can be used to examine the changes in wind stress across the Gulf Stream. The conversion of model data to equivalent neutral winds is highly dependent on the physics considered in the air–sea turbulent fluxes, as well as air–sea temperature differences. This sensitivity is shown to be large enough that satellite observations of winds can be used to test the flux parameterizations in coupled models.

scholarly journals Controlling atmospheric forcing parameters of global ocean models: sequential assimilation of sea surface Mercator-Ocean reanalysis data

Ocean Science ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 403-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Skandrani ◽  
J.-M. Brankart ◽  
N. Ferry ◽  
J. Verron ◽  
P. Brasseur ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Sea Surface Temperature ◽  
Reanalysis Data ◽  
Ocean Model ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Global Ocean ◽  
Atmospheric Forcing ◽  
Ocean Reanalysis ◽  
Ocean Reanalysis Data

Abstract. In the context of stand alone ocean models, the atmospheric forcing is generally computed using atmospheric parameters that are derived from atmospheric reanalysis data and/or satellite products. With such a forcing, the sea surface temperature that is simulated by the ocean model is usually significantly less accurate than the synoptic maps that can be obtained from the satellite observations. This not only penalizes the realism of the ocean long-term simulations, but also the accuracy of the reanalyses or the usefulness of the short-term operational forecasts (which are key GODAE and MERSEA objectives). In order to improve the situation, partly resulting from inaccuracies in the atmospheric forcing parameters, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a way of further adjusting the state of the atmosphere (within appropriate error bars), so that an explicit ocean model can produce a sea surface temperature that better fits the available observations. This is done by performing idealized assimilation experiments in which Mercator-Ocean reanalysis data are considered as a reference simulation describing the true state of the ocean. Synthetic observation datasets for sea surface temperature and salinity are extracted from the reanalysis to be assimilated in a low resolution global ocean model. The results of these experiments show that it is possible to compute piecewise constant parameter corrections, with predefined amplitude limitations, so that long-term free model simulations become much closer to the reanalysis data, with misfit variance typically divided by a factor 3. These results are obtained by applying a Monte Carlo method to simulate the joint parameter/state prior probability distribution. A truncated Gaussian assumption is used to avoid the most extreme and non-physical parameter corrections. The general lesson of our experiments is indeed that a careful specification of the prior information on the parameters and on their associated uncertainties is a key element in the computation of realistic parameter estimates, especially if the system is affected by other potential sources of model errors.

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