Monthly Heat Budget Calculations for the Eastern North Pacific Ocean Using Synoptic-Scale Data.

• Main Authors: Schnoor,Robert Timothy, Elsberry,Russell L.
• Other Authors: NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CALIF
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1975
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; Thermodynamics; *HEAT TRANSFER; *AIR WATER INTERACTIONS; *SEA WATER; THERMAL PROPERTIES; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; TEMPERATURE; OCEAN SURFACE; LAYERS; NUMERICAL ANALYSIS; THESES; DEPTH; OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA; TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS; THERMAL DIFFUSION; MIXING; STORAGE; HEAT; HEAT FLUX; SURFACE TEMPERATURE; OCEAN MODELS; CIRCULATION; NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; ADVECTION; SUBSURFACE; HEAT BALANCE; BASINS(GEOGRAPHIC); THERMOCLINES; *Heat budget; Ocean basins; Ocean circulation; Mixed layers(Marine); Heat storage; East Pacific Ocean; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA012454; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA012454

A heat budget was calculated for the upper 250 m of the eastern North Pacific Ocean using data from Fleet Numerical Weather Central. The motivation for the study is the proposed ocean basin application of mixed-layer models. The heat budget calculation indirectly determined the magnitude of subsurface physical processes by comparing the monthly change in heat storage with the net air-sea heat flux. The heat storage values were derived from subsurface thermal structure data and compared to two different computations of heat flux data. In certain areas physical processes, as found by Bathen (1971), are two to three times greater than the heat flux. However, in the mean the values are of the same magnitude as the heat flux. Investigation of the heat storage term of the heat budget equation indicates that larger values of the residual term may be due to computational error. Present mixed-layer models which rely solely on the heat flux to balance heat storage changes must be modified to include physical processes for application to ocean basins. (Author) Master's thesis.