[MITgcm-support] Fwd: Re: phiHydLow

[Dimitris Menemenlis]

Hi Sergey, it took me a while to figure this out too.
phiHydLow is the depth integral of
(rho - rhoconst) * g * dz / rhoconst
Units are m^2/s^2.  The reason the value is not
very small is that, unless you specify a different
value in the data file, the default rhoconst = 999.8
Don't ask me why, I think it's just historical
and backward compatibility reasons?
So the values you are seeing are roughly
.3 * depth and would be pretty pretty meaningless,
to you unless you remove a time mean.  You can convert
to units of m by dividing by g = 9.8.

phiHydLow definitely includes sea-surface height,
and if you have atmospheric forcing turned on, it
should also include atmospheric pressure ... but
I'm just starting to get familiar with this part
of the code so maybe someone with more experience
can comment.

Cheers, D.

-- 
Dimitris Menemenlis <menemenlis at jpl.nasa.gov>
Jet Propulsion Lab, California Institute of Technology
MS 300-323, 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena CA 91109-8099
tel: 818-354-1656;  fax: 818-393-6720