Decadal variations of global energy and ocean heat budget and meridional energy transports inferred from recent global data sets

We use the most recent global, decades‐long data sets, consisting of two satellite‐derived top‐of‐atmosphere (TOA) and surface radiative flux data sets from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project Flux product (ISCCP‐FD) and the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment Surface Radiation Budget project (GEWEX‐SRB), three ocean surface turbulent flux data sets from Goddard Satellite‐based Surface Turbulent Fluxes (GSSTF), Hamburg Ocean Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite data (HOAPS) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Objectively Analyzed air‐sea Fluxes (WHOI) and one ocean heat content (or energy storage rate) data set from Willis et al. to investigate what can be learned about how decadal‐scale variations of the global energy budget at TOA are partitioned between the atmosphere and ocean and their mean meridional heat transports. Although the mean differences among the TOA radiative flux data sets are large enough that direct measurements of planetary energy imbalances are still unreliable, comparison of the interannual anomalies of the ocean heat content with the two (satellite‐derived) planetary energy imbalances converted to accumulated ocean heat content (or equivalently comparison of the anomalies of ocean heat content converted to ocean heat storage rate with the planetary energy imbalances) show excellent quantitative agreement. These data sets essentially show a heating of the upper ocean since the 1990s but different “trends” at the beginning of this century that need further investigation. The comparison of interannual anomalies of total ocean surface energy fluxes converted to accumulated ocean heat content do not show such good agreement, the former generally indicating a cooling over the past decade. The fact that the anomalies in surface net radiative heating are slightly too large suggests that the latent heat flux anomalies are also too large (causing an overall cooling). The interannual anomalies of the mean meridional heat transport by the atmosphere‐ocean system inferred from the two TOA radiative flux data sets all show similar patterns of weakened poleward transport associated with El Niño events. Each event is different in character. The most interesting difference suggested by the latitudinal patterns is that some heat transport anomalies appear in the atmosphere and some in the ocean, but the current quality of the surface turbulent energy flux data sets precludes confirmation. Although not completely successful, we believe that this analysis indicates that these products are somewhat better than might have been expected and that the goal of further work should now be to reduce their uncertainties enough to diagnose the variations of the coupling of the atmosphere and ocean heat exchanges and transports over decadal timescales.