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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 110,
C08004,
doi:10.1029/2004JC002511,
2005
Upper ocean heat and freshwater budgets in the eastern Pacific warm pool
Hemantha W. Wijesekera
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Daniel L. Rudnick
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA
Clayton A. Paulson
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Stephen D. Pierce
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
W. Scott Pegau
Kachemak Bay Research Reserve, Homer, Alaska, USA
John Mickett
Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Michael C. Gregg
Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Abstract
This study focuses on upper ocean budgets of heat and freshwater, which yield estimates of net surface heat flux and rainfall
minus evaporation. The budgets are based on a 19 day ship survey conducted as part of the Eastern Pacific Investigation of
Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere System 2001 in September 2001. Underway measurements included temperature
and salinity sections from an undulating platform, SeaSoar, and horizontal currents from an acoustic Doppler current profiler
along a 146 × 146 km survey pattern centered near 10°N, 95°W in the eastern Pacific warm pool. Additional measurements from
a second ship at the center of the survey pattern included radar backscatter from rainfall, air-sea fluxes, and vertical profiles
of temperature, salinity, microstructure, and horizontal velocity. Satellite measurements of surface height, temperature,
and rainfall were also analyzed. The heat budget of 20 and 25 m surface layers indicated that storage, advection, turbulent
transport, and penetrative solar radiation were all significant components of the heat budget with a net surface cooling of
41 W m−2 estimated as a residual, which agreed with atmospheric measurements (30 W m−2). The precipitation rate from the freshwater budget was 29 mm d−1, which was in excellent agreement with in situ measurements on both ships and in good agreement with satellite estimates
for the same period. Lateral transports of heat and salt were influenced by an anticyclonic eddy in the survey area, and it
is suggested that anticyclonic eddies, which form near the Central American coast, may carry anomalously warm sea surface
temperature toward the west and become preferential sites for heavy rainfall.
Received 28
May
2004;
accepted 18
March
2005;
published 11
August
2005.
Keywords: heat and freshwater budgets;
eastern Pacific warm pool;
air-sea interaction;
warm eddies and convection;
rainfall;
Costa Rica dome.
Index Terms: 3339 Atmospheric Processes: Ocean/atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504); 4231 Oceanography: General: Equatorial oceanography; 4504 Oceanography: Physical: Air/sea interactions (0312, 3339); 4520 Oceanography: Physical: Eddies and mesoscale processes; 4572 Oceanography: Physical: Upper ocean and mixed layer processes.
Read Full Article (file size: 1953646 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Wijesekera, H. W., D. L. Rudnick, C. A. Paulson, S. D. Pierce, W. S. Pegau, J. Mickett, and M. C. Gregg
(2005),
Upper ocean heat and freshwater budgets in the eastern Pacific warm pool,
J. Geophys. Res.,
110,
C08004,
doi:10.1029/2004JC002511.
Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.
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