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The mean and fluctuating heat balance of the Tasman Sea region in the south-west Pacific Ocean is estimated for the period 1992-1995. Air-sea flux, storage of heat in the ocean, and advection of heat by ocean currents (both geostrophic and Ekman) are all included in the study. Heat advection is derived from three WOCE high-resolution XBT survey lines that enclose the Tasman Sea region. The lines are surveyed on a quarterly basis. To resolve issues of temporal aliasing, we augment the XBT estimates of heat transport with 10-day estimates based on TOPEX/Poseiden altimetric data, using an observed correlation between subsurface temperature and the surface height field. The air-sea flux component of the heat balance is based on ECMWF model data. Heat storage is estimated from altimetric and XBT datasets. The oceanic advection of heat is found to be a significant contributor to the heat balance on annual and interannual timescales as well as in the mean. The annual cycle of heat storage, due largely to air-sea exchange, is seen to be amplified and phase shifted by advective anomalies which are carried southward and then eastward in the East Australia Current system. Interannual anomalies in ocean heat transport, as investigated earlier by Sprintall et al. (1995), may be a dominant factor in driving climate variability in the region.
by Janet Sprintall 1, Dean Roemmich 1, Bruce Cornuelle 1, Basil Stanton 2, Gary Meyers 3, and Rick Bailey 3.
1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography
2 NIWA, New Zealand
3 CSIRO, Australia
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