Air‐sea fluxes inferred from an upper ocean heat budget north‐east of the Azores

• Published in: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
• Main Authors: McCulloch, M. E., Leach, H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1998
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.49712455114; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fqj.49712455114; https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/qj.49712455114

Abstract The contributions to the seasonal heat budget of the upper 500 m of the North Atlantic between 33° and 60° N and 40° and 10° W are calculated using climatology and wind‐stress data. Near the polar front, advection and diffusion are as important in the seasonal heat budget as the air‐sea heat fluxes. In contrast, along a line extending between the Azores and the British Isles the seasonal air‐sea heat fluxes are balanced primarily by heat‐content changes. Therefore, here, the air‐sea fluxes can be inferred from the heat budget with an error of only 23 W m −2 because the large errors in estimates of advection and diffusion are avoided. The inferred fluxes in this area are compared with three bulk‐formulae estimates.