Low-Frequency SST and Upper-Ocean Heat Content Variability in the North Atlantic

Heat content variability in the North Atlantic Ocean in ocean reanalyses.

Warming of the North Atlantic Ocean from the 1950s to 2012 is analyzed on neutral density surfaces and vertical levels in the upper 2000 m. Three reanalyses and two observational data sets are compared. The net gain of 5 × 1022 J in the upper 2000 m is roughly 30% of the global ocean warming over this period. Upper ocean heat content (OHC) is dominated in most regions by heat transport converge...

Seasonal variability of upper ocean heat content in Drake Passage

[1] Mixed-layer depth (MLD) is often used in a mixed-layer heat budget to relate air-sea exchange to changes in the near-surface ocean temperature. In this study, reanalysis heat flux products and profiles from a 15 year time series of high-resolution, near-repeat expendable bathythermograph/expendable conductivity-temperature-depth (XBT/XCTD) sampling in Drake Passage are used to examine the n...

Global upper ocean heat content and climate variability

Observational data from the Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Program were used to calculate the upper ocean heat content (OHC) anomaly. The thickness of the upper layer is taken as 300 m for the Pacific/Atlantic Ocean and 150 m for the Indian Ocean since the Indian Ocean has shallower thermoclines. First, the optimal spectral decomposition scheme was used to build up monthly synoptic tem...

Two distinct roles of Atlantic SSTs in ENSO variability: North Tropical Atlantic SST and Atlantic Nio

[1] Two distinct roles of the Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs), namely, the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) SST and the Atlantic Niño, on the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability are investigated using the observational data from 1980 to 2010 and coupled model experiments. It appears that the NTA SST and the Atlantic Niño can be used as two independent predictors for predicting...

North Atlantic Multidecadal SST Oscillation: External forcing versus internal variability