Regional Energy and Water Cycles: Transports from Ocean to Land

Abstract

Abstract The flows of energy and water from ocean to land are examined in the context of the land energy and water budgets, for land as a whole and for continents. Most atmospheric reanalyses have large errors of up to 15 W m−2 in the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy imbalance, and none include volcanic eruptions. The flow of energy from ocean to land is more reliable as it relies on analyzed wind, temperature, and moisture fields. It is examined for transports of the total, latent energy (LE), and dry static energy (DSE) to land as a whole and as zonal means. The net convergence of energy onto land is balanced by the loss of energy at TOA, measured by Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES), and again there are notable discrepancies. Only the ECMWF Interim Re-Analysis (ERA-I) is stable and plausible. Strong compensation between variations in LE and DSE transports onto land means that their sum is more stable over time, and the net transport of energy onto land is largely that associated with the hydrological cycle (LE). A more detailed examination is given of the energy and water budgets for Eurasia, North and South America, Australia, and Africa, making use of Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data for water storage on land and data on river discharge into the ocean. With ERA-I, the new land estimates for both water and energy are closer to achieving balances than in previous studies. As well as the annual means, the mean annual cycles are examined in detail along with uncertainty sampling estimates, but the main test used here is that of closure.