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How much net surface heat flux should go into the Western Pacific Warm Pool?
Author(s) -
Song Xiangzhou,
Yu Lisan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1002/jgrc.20246
Subject(s) - net (polyhedron) , flux (metallurgy) , environmental science , heat flux , climatology , oceanography , geology , heat transfer , materials science , mathematics , physics , thermodynamics , geometry , metallurgy
The western tropical Pacific warm pool, with the surface area bounded by the 28°C isotherm, receives heat from the atmosphere through the year. However, the exact amount of net surface heat flux into this area remains to be determined. A survey of nine heat flux climatologies (including three latest atmospheric reanalyses, three early reanalyses, and three analyzed products) shows that the estimates are clustered into two groups, with a mean of 18 Wm −2 for the five‐member low net heat flux group (ERA‐Interim, CORE.2, NCEP 1 and 2, and ERA‐40) and of 49 Wm −2 for the four‐member high net heat flux group (CFSR, OAFlux+ISCCP, NOCSv2.0, and MERRA). This study used a pool‐area based heat budget analysis together with in situ air‐sea and subsurface measurements to examine the physical consistency of the nine flux climatologies and to ascribe the statistical uncertainty of each product. The heat budget analysis indicates that the annual mean net surface heat flux should be 28 ± 10 Wm −2 . The observed eddy coefficient along the 28°C isotherm is 1.5 cm 2 s −1 based on the TAO/TRION buoys and the historical records. The ocean cannot dissipate the excessive high heat fluxes, while the low fluxes cannot balance the estimated diffusive heat flux across the isotherm. Both the one‐point direct comparison and pool integrated eddy diffusive heat flux analysis demonstrate that, the high net heat flux climatologies have high bias; on the other hand, the low fluxes have low bias. These biases and uncertainties are given and documented in this paper.