Simulation of sea surface temperatures with the surface heat fluxes from an atmospheric circulation model

Abstract

The global fields of the surface heat fluxes for the December-February period are calculated with the UCLA atmospheric circulation model (ACM). This model operates on a global grid net. The planetary boundary layer (PBL), as the decisive subsystem for the surface fluxes, is parameterized in terms of its bulk properties. For several locations in the north Atlantic, the model heat fluxes are incorporated into the forcing of a simple ocean mixed-layer (OML) model. The OML-model uses a slight generalization of the bulk Kraus-Turner concepts incorporating thermocline contributions to the buoyancy budget of the upper ocean. The remaining components of the OML-forcing are estimated from weather-ship data. The comparison of the sea-surface temperatures (SST), prescribed to the ACM as lower boundary condition, with those obtained from the OML model-integration provides a consistency test for the ACM-fluxes.