Comparison of Surface Turbulent Heat Fluxes between CMIP5 Analyses and Satellite Estimations
Abstract
Heat transport between the ocean and the atmosphere is a major driver of the global climate system. Thus, it is crucial to have an insight into how well our models predict air-sea interface heat flux. Due to the turbulent nature of latent and sensible heat flux, it is difficult to measure; therefore, bulk parameterizations are used to estimate these heat fluxes between the ocean and atmosphere. The bulk parameters used to calculate surface heat fluxes include differences between ocean and air temperature, specific humidity, and wind speed, near the air-sea interface. In this study we take advantage of the many models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, 5th Phase (CMIP5) as well as multiple satellite heat flux products from SeaFlux CDR v2.0, HOASP3.2, and J-OFURO3. We use these multiple datasets to construct both a Multi-Model Ensemble (MME) and a Multi-Satellite Ensemble (MSE) in order to compare these two data streams. We will demonstrate similarities and differences in the distribution functions globally and zonally between the MME and MSE, including regions with persistent mean biases and how these relate to the spread of the data. Differences between the MME and MSE heat fluxes will be related to differences between the input bulk parameters and their effects on the heat fluxes. Understanding areas of persistent bias will help to elucidate areas of further study to improve coupled climate modeling.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.U13B..14R
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATION