Heat-Freshwater Content

Group Data Request

The pycnocline of the Arctic Ocean serves to isolate the warmer, deeper Atlantic layer waters from the overlying sea-ice cover. The strength of the pycnocline is determined by the heat and freshwater stored in the upper Arctic Ocean. AOMIP model groups are requested to supply the following model data:

Freshwater storage integrated through the top 1000 m (liquid column), where freshwater storage is defined as the content of water with a salinity lower than 34.80. This is the integral (34.80 - S) / 34.80 over 0 to 1000 m expressed as meters "exces freshwater".
Heat content of the top 1000 m (liquid column), where heat content is defined by potential temperature (0 m reference) greater than 0 degrees C. This is the integral rho cp theat_t over 0 to 1000 m expressed in J/m^2.
For those models that evaluate transport stream function, provide the scalar value at each grid lat-lon, expressed in m^3/s. For models that do not use stream function, provide column-integrated vector transport as the integral (u,v) through the entire column.