Downward Heat Penetration below Seasonal Thermocline and its Impact on Sea Surface Temperature Variation Affected by Net Heat Flux during Summer Season

Oceanic heat capacity of the upper layer is a key of the change in the sea surface temperature (SST) affecting air–sea heat exchange and of the temporal scale of SST variability. In the past, studies of SST variability associated with the air–sea heat exchange have mainly focused on the conditions during the winter, because wintertime deep mixed layer (ML) accumulates a huge amount of heat to the atmosphere. On the contrary, ML during the warming season is thinner than it is during the cooling season, being only a few tens of meters deep at mid- and high- latitudes, bounded by a shallow and sharp seasonal thermocline. Since the ML that directly communicates with the atmosphere is thin, the ocean has been considered to play a passive role in air–sea interactions during the warming season. In this study, we clarified that subsurface ocean plays an important role to seasonal changes of SST and heat capacity during the warming season using observational data of Argo and J-OFURO2, which is net heat flux (Qnet) data from satellites.

To clarify the role of upper ocean to the Qnet during summer, we introduce a concept of heat penetration depth (HPD), defined as the depth to which Qnet distinctly penetrates below the seasonal thermocline. Then we assume vertical one dimensional process between Qnet and temporal heat content (HC) change integrating temperature from surface to HPD. The vertical one dimensional process can be assumed in almost mid- and high-latitude NP, and we successfully characterize the heat capacity in terms of the HC above the HPD.

The downward heat penetration below the shallow seasonal thermocline is widely found throughout the NP. On the basis of a simple estimation that the amount of heat accumulated by summer Qnet in the NP, about two-thirds of Qnet penetrates below the shallow seasonal thermocline. The effect of heat penetration also makes a magnitude of seasonal change in SST to be smaller, at least a half of that the magnitude under the assumption that heat does not penetrate below the seasonal thermocline. Based on a diagnostic analysis, the heat penetration is mainly caused by vertical eddy diffusivity. Our result will hints to improve the representation of SST change and heat exchange process in climate models around the region where shallow thermocline is formed.