[MITgcm-support] questions re computation of meridional heat flux

[Jean-Michel Campin]

Hi Dimitri,

With non-Linear Free surface (either using z or z* coordinate),
the accurate way to get the integrated heat flux requires to
use VTHMASS (that already contains the hFacS), and then to 
multiply by dxG & delR (with no ETAN).
An other possibility (that I recommand if you are not using
the default 2nd order, centered advection scheme) is to use 
directly the diagnostic of advective flux that the model compute, 
(already multiplied by dxG, delR and hFacS, units: degC.m^3/s)
which is "ADVy_TH"

Cheers,
Jean-Michel

On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 04:03:57PM -0700, Dimitris Menemenlis wrote:
> Jean-Michel, what is most accurate way to compute heat flux across lines of 
> latitude with rStar turned on?  Should I use VVELTH or VTHMASS?  And if I 
> use the latter, what vertical thickness is most appropriate at the surface: 
> "delR(1)" or "delR(1)+ETAN"?
> 
> Dimitris
> _______________________________________________
> MITgcm-support mailing list
> MITgcm-support at mitgcm.org
> http://mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-support