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New estimates for the heat flux across the Polar Front: spatial and temporal variability in recent years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2013

João Marcos Azevedo Correia De Souza ,
Afonso De Moraes Paiva  and
Karina Von Schuckmann
João Marcos Azevedo Correia De Souza*
Affiliation:
IFREMER, LOS, Brest, France School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Afonso De Moraes Paiva
Affiliation:
UFRJ, COPPE, PEnO, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Karina Von Schuckmann
Affiliation:
CNRS, LOCEAN, Paris, France
*
jsouza@soest.hawaii.edu
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Abstract

Two different methodologies are applied in order to quantify the eddy contribution to the heat flux across the Polar Front, between January 2006 and December 2009. First, the eddy fluxes are indirectly estimated through a heat balance based on geostrophic fluxes obtained from the Argo climatological temperature and salinity. Second, a parametric model based on sea level anomaly data from a merged satellite product is used to obtain a direct estimate of the eddy heat flux and its temporal and spatial variability. The results obtained through the heat balance (-80.5 ± 16.45 x 1013 W) and the parameterization (-56.2 ± 4.18 x 1013 W) are within the range established by previous studies. The eddy heat flux is observed to be concentrated in a few narrow regions, with a particularly large contribution from the Atlantic sector. A trend of intensification of the southward heat flux is observed in the study period (-0.44 x 1013 W year-1), compatible with recent modelling and observational studies.

Keywords

ARGOMesoscale eddiesMOCSouthern Ocean
Type
Physical Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , June 2013 , pp. 433 - 444
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2013 

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