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Eddy‐induced meridional heat transport in the ocean
Author(s) -
Volkov Denis L.,
Lee Tong,
Fu LeeLueng
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2008gl035490
Subject(s) - eddy , zonal and meridional , climatology , environmental science , ocean current , ocean heat content , eddy covariance , thermohaline circulation , atmospheric sciences , geology , oceanography , meteorology , turbulence , geography , ecology , ecosystem , biology
A global ocean data synthesis product at eddy‐permitting resolution from Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II (ECCO2) project are used to estimate the oceanic eddy heat transport. We show that in a number of locations the time‐mean eddy heat transport constitutes a considerable portion of the total time‐mean heat transport, in particular, in the tropics, in the Southern Ocean and in the Kuroshio Current. This research demonstrates that the variability of the eddy heat transport is a significant contributor to the variability of the total heat transport and globally it explains about 1/3 of its variance. Eddies are also found to explain a significant portion of the seasonal‐interannual heat transport variance.