HR: 1340h
AN: A23B-0784    [Abstracts]
TI: Tropical Cyclone-Induced Ocean Mixing and Ocean Heat Transport
AU: * Sriver, R L
EM: rsriver@physics.purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051 United States
AU: Huber, M
EM: huberm@purdue.edu
AF: Purdue University, 550 Stadium Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051 United States
AB: Turbulent mixing driven by tropical cyclones (TCs) creates cool sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in their wakes. Restoration to `normal' SST patterns must be driven by anomalous (with respect to climatological values) surface fluxes. The upward turbulent mixing of cool water and the anomalous post-storm heat fluxes into the ocean should drive a substantial amount of poleward ocean heat transport (OHT) and significantly perturb the meridional overturning circulation. Given the sensitivity of TC activity to SSTs, strong feedbacks may exist that alter SST gradients and link TC activity to the mean climate state through OHT. A recent study estimates the magnitude of the TC-induced OHT to be on the order of 10$^{15}$ Watts, representing the majority of the present-day total annual heat transported by the Earth's oceans (Emanuel, 2001, 2002, 2003). Here we analyze a variety of the latest SST and ocean heat content re-analyses datasets, including ECMWF ERA-40, and calculate SST anomalies for the majority of strong TCs occurring during the last forty years. Using SST anomalies, we attempt to quantify the annually averaged global OHT attributable to TC-induced mixing and compare between datasets and measurements/observations. Surface flux data along storm paths are extracted from ERA-40 data, and radiative energy imbalances within storm wakes are also used to calculate the implied OHT. Results are compared with satellite-based climatologies in the period in which they overlap and differences between reanalysis and satellite-based estimates of TC-induced OHT are described.
DE: 3374 Tropical meteorology
DE: 1600 GLOBAL CHANGE (New category)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (3309)
DE: 1635 Oceans (4203)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting