Meridional Heat Flux and Thermal Anomalies in the North Atlantic Ocean: Diagnosis through Four-Dimensional Ocean Data Assimilation

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9530220 Carton This project is a contribution to the modeling component to be carried out as part of the Atlantic Circulation and Climate Experiment (ACCE) under the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE). The focus will be on upgrading existing isopycnal models, data assimilation, and integrating different types of regional models. Comparisons will be made among different modeling approaches in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each, and to determine the best overall approach for including ocean variability in climate modeling. Particular attention will be paid to assimilating, into the models, data from the field phase of ACCE, as well as from historical data bases. In this particular project, the PIs will use data assimilation techniques to determine the domination balances in the upper ocean heat budget on searonal to decadal time scales. They will assimilate historical hydrographic and drifter data into the GFDL Modular Ocean Model (MOM) to give historical perspective on the timescales related to the ACCE ecpseirment. GEOSAT and TOPEX altimeter data, as well as velocity measurements would be added to previous historical analyses caried out by the Pis. A completer analysis of the two years of ACCE data will also be carried out, along with careful estimates of uncertainties, especially those associated with air-sea fluxes.