Heat and Energy Balances in the Upper Ocean at 50 Degrees North, 140 Degrees West During November 1980 STREX (Storm Transfer and Response Experiment)

摘要

Subsurface temperature data and surface meteorological data from thermistor chain moorings deployed during STREX. The upper-ocean heat and potential energy (PE) contents to 90 m are examined for an 18-day period and their changes compared to the sources and sinks of heat and turbulent kinetic energy (TKE). Heat and TKE do not balance in the vertical dimension alone. The heat content change, for example, averages -200 W/sq m while net cooling at the surface, estimated from bulk formulas for latent and sensible heat fluxes and radiation measurements, averaged only -86 W/sq m. Advection of heat and PE, in either and vertical or horizontal, play major roles in the budgets of this area. The authors describe a method for using large-scale wind stress and Sea-surface-temperature data around the site to compute advection in the Ekman layer and close the heat (to 23%) and TKE (to 24%) budgets. Though the heat and PE contents exhibit long-term trends, there are two marked events associated with storms on 15 and 27 November 1980 that account for much of the overall cooling and PE change.