Re: Cf: Heat budget in KOE of Latif-Barnett mode

Subject:

Comments:
: Dr. Miller, : Thank you so much for your valuable comments. : SSTA and themocline depth anomalies are in phase in the northern part of the : KOE in our Fig. 7. This relation appears consistent with your findings. : Our OGCM does not include the effect of vertical entrainment : by wind mixing, but our OGCM handles thermal/buoyancy convection, which appears to : be the major mechanism for the entrainment in the region. : We do not know for sure before we have results from heat budget analysis. : Estimating the accurate contribution of each term regulating : the SST tendency is a good next step for us. Current model output does not contain : the vertical mixing term, which can only be diagnosed/estimated from the residual : of other terms. : : : It is interesting to note that (in a paper in preparation), : : N. Schneider and I have examined the heat budget : : of SST in the KOE for the : : Latif-Barnett mode (the ECHO2 140 yr coupled run) : : and found that vertical mixing effects drive the SST : : and surface heat fluxes damp it. The forcing is : : due to the thermocline rising and falling on the : : decadal time scale (in response to basin-scale : : Ekman pumping forcing) resulting in differences in the strength : : of vertical entrainment of heat into the surface layer. : : As the SST is created it also vents heat to the : : atmosphere (evidenced especially clearly by the local : : precipitation). : : The poster here (and also Qiu's poster) suggests alternatively : : that horizontal geostrophic advection drives the : : KOE SST budget. The model we examined may be too coarse : : (2.8 deg resolution) to properly model the effects : : of advection, or the model heat budget for SST : : (consisting of a single vertical grid point at 10m) may : : be better described if integrated over some mixed layer : : depth.