HR: 16:30h
AN: OS52K-09    [PDF]
TI: Can we reproduce the realistic surface horizontal heat advection in the equatorial Pacific Ocean with assimilation of the Reynolds sea surface temperature
AU: * Yuan, D
EM: dyuan@daac.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: Code 902, DAAC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Savtchenko, A K
EM: asavtche@g0mos13.gsfcmo.ecs.nasa.gov
AF: Code 902, DAAC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: The simulation of the realistic surface horizontal heat advection of the equatorial Pacific Ocean in a numerical model is paramount important to the study and prediction of the variations of the equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature (SST), which are important to the El Ni¤o and the Southern Oscillation phenomenon. In this presentation, we investigate the interannual anomalies of the simulated surface horizontal heat advection in an assimilation experiment of the Reynolds weekly mean SST and compare them to observations. We found that the assimilated anomalies of the surface horizontal heat advection are very sensitive to errors of SST simulations. In addition, we found that, even if the SST errors have been reduced to a minimum level, the simulated horizontal gradients of SST are still very different from the data, because the SST errors at the adjacent grid points often exceed the signal differential in the data. The study has shown that the uncertainty of the interannual anomalies of the surface horizontal heat advection remains high even if the most stringent constraints of SST errors is imposed in numerical simulations. It is, therefore, suggested that the SST horizontal gradients in satellite observations be investigated and assimilated directly for a realistic study of the ENSO events. We have also compared the horizontal gradients in the Reynolds SST analysis with those in the latest Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) measurements on board of Terra satellite. The comparison suggests that the Reynolds SST is seriously erroneous in representing the horizontal gradients of satellite SST. The study suggests that the surface heat balances based on the Reynolds SST analysis or assimilation contain large uncertainty.
DE: 4231 Equatorial oceanography
DE: 4255 Numerical modeling
DE: 4263 Ocean prediction
DE: 4522 El Ni¤o
DE: 4572 Upper ocean processes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting