Vertical Heat Flux in the Ocean: Estimates from Observations, and Comparisons with a Coupled General Circulation Model

The net heat uptake by the ocean in a changing climate involves small imbalances between the advective and diffusive processes that transport heat vertically. Generally, it is necessary to rely on global climate models to study these processes in detail. In the present study, it is shown that a key component of the vertical heat flux, namely that associated with the large-scale mean vertical circulation, can be diagnosed over extra-tropical regions from global observational data sets. This component is estimated based on the vertical velocity obtained from the geostrophic vorticity balance, combined with estimates of the absolute geostrophic flow. Results are compared with a non-eddy resolving, coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model. This shows reasonable agreement in the latitudinal distribution of the heat flux, along with net integrated vertical heat flux below about 300 meters depth. The mean vertical heat flux is shown to be dominated by the downward contribution from the southern hemisphere and, in particular, the Southern Ocean. This is driven by the Ekman vertical velocity which induces an upward vertical transport of seawater that is cold relative to the lateral average at a given depth. The correspondence with the coupled model breaks down at depths shallower than 300 m due to the dominant contribution of equatorial regions which have been excluded from the calculation. It appears that the vertical transport of heat by the large-scale mean circulation is consistent with simple linear vorticity dynamics over much of the ocean.