Tutorial on volume, heat, and freshwater budgets
An essential task in physical oceanography is to construct budgets of conserved quantities, like heat, salt and seawater mass, and the masses of trace chemicals. In the Arctic and subArctic oceans, for example, such budgets are routinely used to diagnose and understand the effects of natural variati...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Conference Object |
| Language: | unknown |
| Published: |
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://zenodo.org/record/7901490 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7901490 |
| Summary: | An essential task in physical oceanography is to construct budgets of conserved quantities, like heat, salt and seawater mass, and the masses of trace chemicals. In the Arctic and subArctic oceans, for example, such budgets are routinely used to diagnose and understand the effects of natural variations and anthropogenic climate change on temperature and salinity. Traditionally, temperature variability is analyzed using a budget of heat fluxes relative to a reference temperature. Similarly, salinity variability is analyzed using so-called freshwater fluxes relative to a reference salinity. Well-documented pitfalls exist in the interpretation of these heat and freshwater fluxes, however. Yet, despite being well-documented, these pitfalls are not universally understood or accepted. This contribution aims to improve understanding of, and to promote best-practices in, the interpretation of heat and freshwater fluxes, and the construction of their budgets. The contribution consists of: (i) A free, open-source, interactive, pedagogical software application called the Ocean-Flux-Budget tool. (ii) A tutorial YouTube video demonstrating the Ocean-Flux-Budget tool, the pitfalls mentioned above, and suggested workarounds. (iii) A document explaining the issues, with references to the original literature, and proposed best practices. To access these resources visit github.com/ThomasHaine/Ocean-Flux-Budget. At this website you can also seek advice, ask questions, and help refine understanding of ocean fluxes and budgets. |
|---|