[MITgcm-support] [EXTERNAL] Vertical heat balance in the ocean

[Dimitris Menemenlis]

your configuration is different but perhaps you can find some useful suggestions for closing the MITgcm heat budget here:
https://ecco-group.org/docs/v4r3_budgets_howto.pdf <https://ecco-group.org/docs/v4r3_budgets_howto.pdf>


> On Aug 25, 2020, at 6:48 AM, Shatwell, Peter A <peter.shatwell12 at imperial.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hello helpful MITgcm community,
> 
> I’m using the DDrake coupled configuration with a cube-sphere (C24) grid with 15 vertical levels (more details in Ferreira et al. 2010, https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI3197.1 <https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI3197.1__;!!PvBDto6Hs4WbVuu7!fkKI3OFZ0-ngQFY6Q7KpZNLELkMDsL8Eo9SVh0ggrz8G8hGTRJkg6lCiW9ItCq5KMmVmZqkujHI$>), and I am trying to close the vertical heat balance in the model ocean.
> 
> I have computed vertical profiles of the advective vertical heat flux (diagnostic ADVr_TH) and the total diffusive vertical heat flux (diagnostics DFrE_TH and DFrI_TH). These advective and diffusive fluxes almost exactly balance throughout the water column (see attached figure), consistent with the traditional ‘upwelling-diffusion’ vertical balance of Munk ’66 and others (I’ve plotted it such that a positive flux is downwards i.e. a warming effect).
> 
> However, there is a strong departure from this balance in the top ~130 m of the ocean, indicating strong net upward cooling. Apparently penetrating shortwave radiation in the model could balance this cooling, but I am not sure how to properly confirm this. Are there existing model diagnostics to plot the shortwave penetration? Or could I estimate it from other outputs? 
> 
> Or is there something else that could provide a warming effect near the ocean surface? Or should I expect this balance to even hold at all?
> 
> Thanks and all the best,
> 
> Peter
> 
> --
> Peter Shatwell
> PhD student at MPECDT
> Space and Atmospheric Physics
> Imperial College London
> Huxley 714
> <ctrl_climate_vertical_heat_balance.jpg>_______________________________________________
> MITgcm-support mailing list
> MITgcm-support at mitgcm.org
> https://urldefense.us/v3/__http://mailman.mitgcm.org/mailman/listinfo/mitgcm-support__;!!PvBDto6Hs4WbVuu7!fkKI3OFZ0-ngQFY6Q7KpZNLELkMDsL8Eo9SVh0ggrz8G8hGTRJkg6lCiW9ItCq5KMmVmlr1_kpQ$ 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.mitgcm.org/pipermail/mitgcm-support/attachments/20200825/b1899c38/attachment.html>