Publication Date:
2018-08-01
Description:
Water mass transformation quantifies transport of matter between different density classes of the World Ocean. We present the first observationally based quantification of transformation rates due to air-sea buoyancy fluxes, which considers different parameterizations of shortwave radiation depth penetration, including the influence of albedo and the Chlorophyll a concentration. The results provide a range of solutions that can be used to compare model-based transformation rates against. We compared two air-sea flux products with limited representation of ice dynamics at high latitudes. We find that variations in the air-sea heat fluxes due to Chlorophyll a and its horizontal distribution are as important for water mass transformation rates than differences between the freshwater flux products. An accurate representation of the effects and spatial distribution of Chlorophyll a is required to obtain realistic transformation rates. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics