Modeling the Near‐Surface Diurnal Cycle of Sea Surface Temperature in the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

AbstractThe diurnal cycle of sea surface temperature (SST) is an important component of the ocean‐atmosphere system and is necessary for accurately computing air‐sea heat fluxes. Ocean temperatures in the near‐surface are highly sensitive to atmospheric conditions and can vary significantly depending on time of day. Ocean general circulation models are unable to fully capture the near‐surface diurnal SST variability, because they do not possess the necessary vertical structure and resolution. Furthermore, SST observations come from a number of sources that represent the temperature at various near‐surface depths. This presents difficulties when assimilating SST observations as well as constructing robust climate records of SST. In this study we model the fine‐scale near‐surface structure allowing SST comparisons between foundation SST, SST at depth, subskin SST, and skin SST. Hourly model results, forced and initialized using readily available reanalysis data, are from a 2‐year period, 2013–2014, over the Mediterranean Sea. Various solar absorption parameterizations are examined, and the resulting SSTs are compared to Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager‐derived observations of the skin temperature.