Analysis of sea surface temperature simulation in the northwestern pacific and the east Asian marginal seas using HadGEM2-AO

Abstract

In this study, we evaluated the model performance with respect to Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Net Heat Flux (NHF) by considering the characteristics of seasonal temperature variation and contributing factors and by analyzing heat budget terms in the Northwestern Pacific and East Asian Marginal Seas (110oE-160oE, 15oN-60oN) using the HadGEM2-AO historical run. Annual mean SST of the HadGEM2-AO is about 0.065oC higher than observations (EN3_v2a) from 1950 to 2000. Since 1960, the model has simulated well the long-term variation of SST and the increasing rate of SST in the model (0.014oC/year) is comparable with observations (0.013oC/year). Heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere was simulated slightly higher in the HadGEM2-AO than that in the reanalysis data on the East Asian Marginal Seas and the Kuroshio region. We investigated the causes of temperature variation by calculating the heat budget equation in the two representative regions. In the central part of the Kuroshio axis (125oE-130oE, 25oN-30oN: Region A), both heat loss in the upper mixed layer by surface heat flux and vertical heat advection mainly cause the decrease of heat storage in autumn and winter. Release of latent heat flux through the heat convergence brought about by the Kuroshio contributes to the large surface net heat flux. Positive heat storage rate is mainly determined by horizontal heat advection from March to April and surface net heat flux from May to July. In the central part of the subtropical gyre (155oE-160oE, 22oN-27oN: Region B), unlike Region A, vertical heat advection predominantly causes the decrease of heat storage in autumn and winter. In spring and summer, surface heat flux contributes to the increase of heat storage in Region B and the period is two times longer than the period for Region A. In this season, shoaling of the mixed layer depth plays an important role in the increase of SST. © 2016, Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. All rights reserved.