Vertical heat flux in the ocean: Estimates from observations and from 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 absolute geostrophic flow. Results are compared with the output of a non-eddy resolving, coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model. Reasonable agreement is found in the latitudinal distribution of the vertical heat flux, as well as in the area-integrated flux below about 250 m depth. The correspondence with the coupled model deteriorates sharply at depths shallower than 250 m due to the omission of equatorial regions from the calculation. The vertical heat flux due to the mean circulation is found to be dominated globally by the downward contribution from the Southern Hemisphere, in particular the Southern Ocean. This is driven by the Ekman vertical velocity which induces an upward transport of seawater that is cold relative to the horizontal average at a given depth. The results indicate that the dominant characteristics of the vertical transport of heat due to the mean circulation can be inferred from simple linear vorticity dynamics over much of the ocean.