HR: 14:55h
AN: A53B-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Air-Sea Heat Fluxes and Sea Surface Temperature at two Sites in the Eastern Tropical Pacific during 1997-98
AU: * Farrar, J T
EM: jfarrar@whoi.edu
AF: WHOI-MIT Joint Program in Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Mail Stop #29, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Weller, R A
EM: rweller@whoi.edu
AF: Department of Physical Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Mail Stop #29, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AB: As part of the Pan American Climate Study program, in situ observations of surface meteorology, incoming short and long wave radiation, and upper ocean temperature, salinity, and velocity were collected for 17 months during 1997-98 at two sites on 125°W in the eastern tropical Pacific. Instrumentation at 10°N recorded data during two ITCZ seasons, and instrumentation at 3°S recorded the transition from El Niño to La Niña on the southern flank of the equatorial cold tongue. The data allow accurate estimation of the air-sea heat fluxes via bulk formulae. Augmented with satellite data, these data are used to estimate the terms in the mixed layer temperature balance at the two sites. Particular attention is given to the role of surface heat fluxes and horizontal advection in setting the local sea surface temperature (SST). At the northern site, surface fluxes and mixed layer entrainment dominated the surface temperature balance when the ITCZ was over the mooring, while horizontal advection played a more important role during the trade wind season. Despite expectations that increased cloud cover in the ITCZ might reduce heating of the upper ocean, the heating was stronger beneath the ITCZ because the weak mean winds substantially reduced evaporative heat loss. At the southern site, horizontal advection was important in the local transition from El Niño to La Niña SST states, and the surface heat flux acted to partially negate the El Niño/La Niña SST signal.
DE: 4504 Air/sea interactions (0312, 3339)
DE: 4522 ENSO (4922)
DE: 4572 Upper ocean and mixed layer processes
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005