Abstract
The relationship between heat content and sea surface height (SSH) in the global ocean on the interannual time scale is examined with satellite altimeter measurements, historical hydrography, and model assimilation outputs. Results show that correlation between altimetric SSH and heat content in the upper 700 m calculated from Ishii data is geographically nonuniform. In the tropical ocean, heat content and SSH are strongly correlated and exhibit nearly the same interannual variations. In the polar ocean, their correlation is relatively weak. Further analysis with Simple Ocean Data Assimilation outputs shows that such nonuniform distribution is not from dynamical origin but from the limited integral depth selected to calculate heat content. The integral depth of 700 m is inadequate to capture variation of the deep main thermocline in the polar region. The halosteric effect also contributes to the nonuniform pattern of correlation, because saline contraction becomes significant in the polar ocean owing to low temperature.
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Supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX2-YW-Q11-02), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41006114, 40890151), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2012CB417401), and the SOA Key Laboratory for Polar Science (No. KP201103)
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Zhang, L., Sun, C. & Hu, D. Relationship between oceanic heat content and sea surface height on interannual time scale. Chin. J. Ocean. Limnol. 30, 1026–1032 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-012-1247-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-012-1247-z