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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: General: Diurnal, seasonal, and annual cycles
  • Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Climatology
  • Oceanography: General: Descriptive and regional oceanography
  • Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability

Abstract

GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L04304, 4 PP., 2004
doi:10.1029/2003GL018851

Climatological annual cycle of ocean heat content

John I. Antonov

National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA

Sydney Levitus

National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Timothy P. Boyer

National Oceanographic Data Center, NOAA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Ocean heat content is a major component of earth's energy budget. This paper presents estimates of the climatological annual cycle of upper (0–250 m layer) ocean heat content based on World Ocean Atlas 2001. The land-ocean ratio is responsible for the geographical distribution of the annual cycle of ocean heat content. Globally, the amplitude of annual harmonic of upper ocean heat content is 3.7 × 1022 J for the World Ocean, 10.2 × 1022J for the Southern Hemisphere, and 6.5 × 1022J for the Northern Hemisphere.

Received 16 October 2003; accepted 14 January 2004; published 26 February 2004.

Citation: Antonov, J. I., S. Levitus, and T. P. Boyer (2004), Climatological annual cycle of ocean heat content, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L04304, doi:10.1029/2003GL018851.

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