HR: 17:20h
AN: U24A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Surface heat fluxes and oceanic heat balance in the southern Gulf of California during the NAME, June-August 2004
AU: * Beier, E
EM: ebeier@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, La Paz, Miraflores 334, Bella Vista, La Paz, BCS 23050, Mexico
AU: Castro, R
EM: rubenc@uabc.mx
AF: UABC, Facultad de Ciencias Marinas, Apartado Postal 453, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Guest, P
EM: pguest@nps.edu
AF: Naval Postgraduate School, Department of Meteorology, 589 Dyer Road, Room 254, Monterey, CA 93943-5114, United States
AU: Lavin, M F
EM: mlavin@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Oceanografia Fisica, Km 107 Carr. Tijuana/Ensenada, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AU: Godinez-Sandoval, V
EM: mxcali@cicese.mx
AF: CICESE, Oceanografia Fisica, Km 107 Carr. Tijuana/Ensenada, Ensenada, BC 22800, Mexico
AB: Oceanographic and meteorological data from two oceanographic cruises carried out in June and August 2004 as part of the NAME, are used to calculate the fluxes of heat across the sea surface and the heat balance in the southern Gulf of California. Understanding the oceanic heat balance is important to know the processes that control the evolution of SST in the gulf during the warm period. Collected data included: simultaneous velocity observations (Lagrangian and Eulerian); hydrography; and lower atmosphere data. During the period of observation, the heat balance given by the horizontal heat flux, the surface flux and the ocean heating, shows values with similar phase to those of the annual climatology; but the values are significantly different, reaching in some cases a difference of one order of magnitude. Although the oceanographic and meteorological climatological data resolves very poorly the southern Gulf of California during the warm period, the discrepancy can probably be explained mainly in terms of the oceanic mesoscale activity in the surface of the gulf which is not taken into account in the climatological calculations. Filaments, eddies and meanders are connected with the adjacent Pacific Ocean and play an important role in controlling the heat balance, and hence in the SST evolution during the NAM season
DE: 3329 Mesoscale meteorology
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
DE: 4243 Marginal and semi-enclosed seas
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
DE: 4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly