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Air‐sea fluxes inferred from an upper ocean heat budget north‐east of the Azores
Author(s) -
McCulloch M. E.,
Leach H.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712455114
Subject(s) - advection , climatology , environmental science , polar front , wind stress , heat flux , front (military) , oceanography , atmospheric sciences , geology , heat transfer , physics , thermodynamics
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.