Seminar: Ocean Heat Transport by AMOC and Gyres

Abstract

Heat transport in the Atlantic is everywhere northward, and exhibits strong multidecadal variability at some latitudes. It is often of interest to partition this heat transport into two components: the heat transport by the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) and the heat transport by the gyres. The most common method for performing this separation is a simple geometric method that uses the zonal mean in depth space. I will discuss possible problems with this method and describe a newer physically-motivated method. I will then use the new method to evaluate the components of heat transport variability at multiple latitudes in the CESM large ensemble, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each method. These methods could be applied to a wide variety of other tracers in the future.