Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) heat exchange project: A summary report

A pilot data center to compute ocean atmosphere heat exchange over the tropical ocean is prposed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in response to the scientific needs of the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere (TOGA) Program. Optimal methods will be used to estimate sea surface temperature (SET), surface wind speed, and humidity from spaceborne observations. A monthly summary of these parameters will be used to compute ocean atmosphere latent heat exchanges. Monthly fields of surface heat flux over tropical oceans will be constructed using estimations of latent heat exchanges and short wave radiation from satellite data. Verification of all satellite data sets with in situ measurements at a few locations will be provided. The data center will be an experimental active archive where the quality and quantity of data required for TOGA flux computation are managed. The center is essential to facilitate the construction of composite data sets from global measurements taken from different sensors on various satellites. It will provide efficient utilization and easy access to the large volume of satellite data available for studies of ocean atmosphere energy exchanges

Deepening of the wind-mixed layer

A model is given that describes the local response of the upper ocean to an imposed surface wind stress and heat flux…

Formation of an inertial current on a continental shelf

The simplest problem in the formation of an inertial stratified western-boundary current on a continental shelf is examined by numerical treatment of the three-dimensional conservation equations. An offshore countercurrent appears as the predominant feature of the flow

A Two-Layer Model of the North Atlantic Thermocline

A two-layer model of mid-oceanic thermocline is developed, and a comparison of the depth and temperature of the thermocline in this model is made with a root-mean-square description of the hydrographic structure of the North Atlantic. It is shown that the Sverdrup balance is maintained within the rms errors, and the entire estimated heat flux from the atmosphere is used to produce the observed density changes along the path of persistent flow

Circulation in a wind-swept and cooled ocean

A two-layer model of circulation is developed in an open-ocean basin where a vertically homogeneous layer overlays a thermoclinic region. In the latter, the temperature changes in an exponential manner to a constant abyssal value. The motions are driven by an Ekman suction and cooling (or heating) of the ocean surface...

Energetics of the Florida Current

During the summer of 1974, fifty free-drop transport profiles and STD/XBT profiles were carried out in the Florida Current at 14 stations along the 25°51.00\u27N latitude. From these data and from the historical free-drop data 12 km to the south, a computation is made of the energy flow from the mean current to the fluctuations over the entire cross-section of the Florida Straits. Statistically significant areas of both potential and kinetic energy conversion are computed...

Seasonal variability of the Florida Current

The seasonal variability of the directly measured transport and horizontal currents in the Florida Strait has been determined from 90 transects of the Florida Current at the latitude of Miami, Florida. It is estimated that the seasonal variability accounts for 45% of the total variability in the total transport; the early summertime maximum value of the transport is 33.6 × 106 m3/sec, and the early winter low is 25.4 × 106 m3/sec...

On thermally maintained circulation in a closed ocean basin

A three-dimensional model of a thermohaline-maintained circulation is presented for a closed basin of finite depth on the beta plane. The circulation, which conserves potential vorticity, consists of a westward drift at all levels in the open ocean and a return flow that is accomplished in a swift eastward-flowing current. A comparison is made to Worthington\u27s recent water-mass analysis of deep circulation in the North Atlantic Basin

Observed mechanisms of El Nino SST evolution in the Pacific

Tropical Pacific Ocean SST and velocity observations are used to construct NINO3 and NINO4 area average, 20-year long interannual time series of local and advective convergences of thermal energy. The variability of the sum of these observed convergences in each region is balanced by the vertical convergence of thermal energy due to the latent surface flux (86% in NINO3; 84% in NINO4). The latitude scale of the El Nino SST anomalies is shown to be equal to the ratio of the poleward mean speed of water parcels to the time scale at which thermal energy is given back to the atmosphere by a negative SST feedback through latent heat flux anomaly. Simultaneous observations and analyses of velocity and SST underscore the importance of the time-mean, wind-driven, poleward circulation in the establishment of the patterns of El Nino/SST anomalies directly north and south of the Pacific equator