Ocean Surface Mixed Layer Property Quantification: A Comparison And Evaluation Of Results From Different Ocean State Estimates And Numerical Simulations

Accurate quantification of Ocean Surface Mixed Layer (OSML) processes and properties (such as depth, or tracer content and variability) is crucial for understanding and predicting a variety of climate, weather and biogeochemical phenomena, and OSML property estimates can serve as important model evaluation tools. These property estimates, however, often vary among studies due to the methods applied or the data/model products used. We present an intercomparison of OSML depth, underlying barrier layer thickness, and temperature and salinity budgets from four property-conserving Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean (ECCO) state estimates, and from high-resolution (1-8 km horizontal grid spacing) global-ocean integrations of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm), focusing on several locations of interest in the tropics. These results will be discussed in the context of observational studies in the literature for these same locations, and factors that may contribute to differences in results will be evaluated.