2006: Vertical partition of ocean heat transport in isothermal coordinates. Geophys

• Main Authors: Oleg A. Saenko, William J. Merryfield
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: coordinates; Geophys. Res. Lett; 33; L01606; doi; 10.1029; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.523.1355; http://www.cccma.ec.gc.ca/papers/osaenko/PDF/heat_transport_iso_2006.pdf

[1] The meridional overturning circulation (MOC), associated with deep water formation in the North Atlantic, is thought to play an important part in the transport of heat by the climate system. According to observational estimates, and simple scaling arguments, the transport of heat by the MOC is 1 PW. However, in one recent modeling study (Boccaletti et al., 2005), this estimate is reduced to 0.4 PW. Using a model with higher resolution, the issue of heat transport partitioning between the circulation in the upper ocean and that due to the flows in the deep ocean is revisited here. It is found that, out of about 3 PW of heat entering the low-latitude ocean through the surface, approximately 65 % is transported poleward by the directly wind-driven circulations in the upper ocean. However, 0.85 ± 0.35 PW of the peak northward heat transport at 15–20N, can be associated with the MOC. In the Southern Hemisphere, the net effect of the deep flows on the heat transport is weaker, so that the corresponding maximum at 15–20S is essentially due to the flows in the