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Interannual variations in the components of heat budget in the upper layer of the North Atlantic in different seasons

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Abstract

Seasonal variability of interannual fluctuations of the heat balance components of the upper quasi-homogeneous ocean layer (UQL) in the North Atlantic is analyzed by processing the reanalysis data set for the period of 1959–2011. It is shown that interannual variations in the components of the UQL heat budget are characterized by pronounced regional features in all seasons. In the tropics and subtropics, heat balance is quasistationary and is determined by the nonlocal processes, such as heat advection and horizontal mixing. In the subpolar latitudes, nonstationarity (in the spring) and heat fluxes at the UQL boundary (in the autumn and in the winter) are also important. A major role in the interannual variability of the UQL temperature in the vicinity of jet currents of the Gulf Stream type is played in all seasons by the fluctuations of horizontal heat advection. However, the contribution of interannual fluctuations of the individual components of the heat budget to variability of the UQL temperature varies considerably in different seasons. The interannual fluctuations of the local variation in the UQL temperature are characterized by the largest variability in the spring and the lowest one in the autumn. The greatest contribution of the variations in the horizontal heat advection to the change in the UQL temperature at the interannual scale is recorded in the winter, and the lowest one is in the summer. The contribution of the interannual variations in the heat fluxes at the UQL upper boundary to the variability of the UQL temperature is the highest in the summer and the lowest in the autumn. Fluctuations of the heat fluxes at the UQL lower boundary do not have a significant impact on the interannual variations in the UQL temperature for the whole water area. The exception is small areas in the region of the formation of the North Atlantic deep water in the autumn–winter period and in the vicinity of the Equatorial Counter Current in the spring–summer period.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Natural and Technical Systems, Sevastopol, 299011, Russia

    A. B. Polonsky & P. A. Sukhonos

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  1. A. B. Polonsky
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  2. P. A. Sukhonos
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Correspondence to A. B. Polonsky.

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Original Russian Text © A.B. Polonsky, P.A. Sukhonos, 2017, published in Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2017, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 523–531.

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Polonsky, A.B., Sukhonos, P.A. Interannual variations in the components of heat budget in the upper layer of the North Atlantic in different seasons. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 53, 459–466 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433817040107

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433817040107

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