Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Air/sea measurements from the Long-Term Upper Ocean Study (LOTUS) buoy
in the Sargasso Sea are analyzed to learn how the diurnal response of sea
surface temperature, ΔTs, is related to the surface heating, H, and the
wind stress, S. Data are taken from the LOTUS-3 and LOTUS-5 records which
span the summers of 1982 and 1983. The basic data are shown in monthly
plots, and the analyzed daily values of ΔTs, H, and S are given in
tables and in figures.
Analyzed data show a clear trend of ΔTs increasing with H and
decreasing with S. A best-fit, three-parameter, empirical function can account
for 90 percent of the variance in a screened subset of the LOTUS data
(172 days) and 81 percent of the variance of the full data set (361 days).
The analyzed data are also compared with a theoretical model function
now used for ocean predictions in the Diurnal Ocean Surface Layer model
(DOSL) of Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center. The DOSL model function was
derived from the assumption that wind-mixing occurs by a mechanism of shear
flow instability. It is fully predictive and shows a parameter dependence
consistent with the LOTUS data over a wide range of H and S. The DOSL
model function can account for almost as much variance as the best-fit empirical
function.
Description:
Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research
under contract Nos. N00014-76-C-0197, NR 083-400 and N00014-84-C-0134,
NR 083-400.
Keywords:
Ocean temperature
;
Ocean-atmosphere interaction
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Technical Report
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