Heat Flux Convergence Research Articles

A CGCM Study on the Interaction between IOD and ENSO

AbstractAn atmosphere–ocean coupled general circulation model known as the Scale Interaction Experiment Frontier version 1 (SINTEX-F1) model is used to understand the intrinsic variability of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). In addition to a globally coupled control experiment, a Pacific decoupled noENSO experiment has been conducted. In the latter, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability is suppressed by decoupling the tropical Pacific Ocean from the atmosphere. The ocean–atmosphere conditions related to the IOD are realistically simulated by both experiments including the characteristic east–west dipole in SST anomalies. This demonstrates that the dipole mode in the Indian Ocean is mainly determined by intrinsic processes within the basin. In the EOF analysis of SST anomalies from the noENSO experiment, the IOD takes the dominant seat instead of the basinwide monopole mode. Even the coupled feedback among anomalies of upper-ocean heat content, SST, wind, and Walker circulation over the Indian Ocean is reproduced.As in the observation, IOD peaks in boreal fall for both model experiments. In the absence of ENSO variability the interannual IOD variability is dominantly biennial. The ENSO variability is found to affect the periodicity, strength, and formation processes of the IOD in years of co-occurrences. The amplitudes of SST anomalies in the western pole of co-occurring IODs are aided by dynamical and thermodynamical modifications related to the ENSO-induced wind variability. Anomalous latent heat flux and vertical heat convergence associated with the modified Walker circulation contribute to the alteration of western anomalies. It is found that 42% of IOD events affected by changes in the Walker circulation are related to the tropical Pacific variabilities including ENSO. The formation is delayed until boreal summer for those IODs, which otherwise form in boreal spring as in the noENSO experiment.

Variability of the Southern Hemisphere Winter Split Flow—A Case of Two-Way Reinforcement between Mean Flow and Eddy Anomalies

Abstract A new split-jet index is defined in this study, and composites based on this index show that the split-flow regime is characterized by a cold–warm–cold tripolar temperature anomaly in the South Pacific that extends equatorward from the Southern Hemisphere (SH) high latitudes, while nonsplit flow occurs when the phase of the tripolar temperature anomaly is reversed. Analyses of the heat budget reveal that the temperature anomalies associated with the split/nonsplit flow are mainly forced by mean flow advection instead of local diabatic heating or convergence of eddy heat fluxes. Localized Eliassen–Palm (E–P) flux diagnostics suggest that the zonal wind anomalies are maintained by the eddy vorticity flux anomalies. These diagnostic results are confirmed by numerical experiments conducted using a stationary wave model forced by observed eddy forcings and diabatic heating anomalies. The model results show that the effects of the vorticity flux dominates over those of the heat flux, which tend to dampen the flow anomalies, and that tropical diabatic heating anomalies are not important in maintaining the split-/nonsplit-flow anomalies. The organization of high-frequency eddies by the low-frequency split/nonsplit jet is also studied. Two sets of experiments using a linear storm-track model initialized with random initial perturbations superposed upon the split- and nonsplit-jet basic state, respectively, have been conducted. Model results show that the storm-track anomalies that are organized by the split/nonsplit jet are consistent with observed storm-track anomalies, thus demonstrating that the low-frequency split/nonsplit jet acts to organize the high-frequency eddies. The results of this paper directly establish that there is a two-way reinforcement between eddies and mean flow anomalies in the low-frequency variability of the SH winter split jet.

Numerical Study of a Kyucho and a Bottom Intrusion in the Bungo Channel, Japan: Disturbances Generated by the Kuroshio Small Meanders

The generation and propagation mechanisms of a Kyucho and a bottom intrusion in the Bungo Channel, Japan, have been studied numerically using the hydrostatic primitive equations by assuming density stratification during summer. The experiments are designed to generate a Kuroshio small meander in Hyuga-Nada, which acts as a trigger for these disturbances. After the current speed of the Kuroshio is changed, a small meander is generated. At the head of the small meander, warm Kuroshio water is engulfed, and encounters the southwest coast of Shikoku. However, convergence of heat flux on the bump off Cape Ashizuri suppresses the generation of a warm disturbance, if the current speed is large. As the cold eddy associated with the small meander approaches Cape Ashizuri, the heat flux diverges on the bump. This heat source forces a warm disturbance, which intrudes along the east coast of the Bungo Channel as a baroclinic Kelvin wave (a Kyucho). After the cold eddy passes off Cape Ashizuri, the Kuroshio approaches the bump again. Strong convergence of heat flux then occurs on the bump, which forces a cold disturbance. This disturbance propagates as a topographic Rossby wave along the shelf break at the mouth of the channel. After the topographic wave reaches the west end of the shelf break, it intrudes along the bottom layer of the channel as a density current (a bottom intrusion). These results suggest that a Kyucho and a bottom intrusion are successive events associated with the propagation of the small meander.

Relationships between South Atlantic SST Variability and Atmospheric Circulation over the South African Region during Austral Winter

Abstract The Southwestern Cape (SWC) region of South Africa is characterized by winter rainfall brought mainly via cold fronts and by substantial interannual variability. Previous work has found evidence that the interannual variability in SWC winter rainfall may be related to sea surface temperature (SST) in the South Atlantic Ocean and to large-scale ocean–atmosphere interaction in this region. During wet winters, SST tends to be anomalously warm (cool) in the southwest Atlantic and southeast Atlantic (central South Atlantic). Atmospheric general circulation model experiments with various idealized SST anomalies in the South Atlantic are used to explore mechanisms potentially associated with the rainfall variability. The model results suggest that the atmosphere is sensitive to subtropical–midlatitude SST anomalies in the South Atlantic during winter. Locally, there are changes to the jet position and strength, low-level relative vorticity, and convergence of moisture and latent heat flux that lead to changes in rainfall over the SWC. The model response to the SST forcing also shows large-scale anomalies in the midlatitude Southern Hemisphere circulation, namely, an Antarctic Oscillation–type mode and wavenumber-3 changes, similar to those observed during anomalous winters in the region.

Maintenance of the Sea-Ice Edge

Abstract A coupled global climate model is used to evaluate processes that determine the equilibrium location of the sea-ice edge and its climatological annual cycle. The extent to which the wintertime ice edge departs from a symmetric ring around either pole depends primarily on coastlines, ice motion, and the melt rate at the ice–ocean interface. At any location the principal drivers of the oceanic heat flux that melts sea ice are absorbed solar radiation and the convergence of heat transported by ocean currents. The distance between the ice edge and the pole and the magnitude of the ocean heat flux convergence at the ice edge are inversely related. The chief exception to this rule is in the East Greenland Current, where the ocean heat flux convergence just east of the ice edge is relatively high but ice survives due to its swift southward motion and the protection of the cold southward-flowing surface water. In regions where the ice edge extends relatively far equatorward, absorbed solar radiation is the largest component of the ocean energy budget, and the large seasonal range of insolation causes the ice edge to traverse a large distance. In contrast, at relatively high latitudes, the ocean heat flux convergence is the largest component and it has a relatively small annual range, so the ice edge traverses a much smaller distance there. When the model is subject to increased CO2 forcing up to twice preindustrial levels, the ocean heat flux convergence weakens near the ice edge in most places. This weakening reduces the heat flux from the ocean to the base of the ice and tends to offset the effects of increased radiative forcing at the ice surface, so the ice edge retreats less than it would otherwise.

The Contrasting Features of Winter Circulation During Surplus and Deficient Precipitation Over Western Himalayas

Contrasting features associated with surplus and deficient precipitation years are studied to examine atmospheric circulation characteristics during the winter season viz., December, January February and March (DJFM) to assess the wintertime synoptic weather system affecting the western Himalayas. Large-scale balances of kinetic energy, vorticity, angular momentum, heat and moisture fields are analyzed. Winter circulations are studied over the domain 15°S–45°S and 30°E–120°E. This domain is considered particularly to illustrate the distribution of precipitation due to wintertime eastward moving synoptic weather systems called western disturbances. Surplus and deficient years of seasonal (DJFM) precipitation are identified using±20% departure from mean from uninitialized daily reanalysis data of fourty (1958–1997) years of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), USA. The years 1965–1969, 1973 and 1991 are found to be surplus years and years 1962, 1963, 1971, 1977 and 1985 are found to be deficient years. Composites of these two categories are made. Comparative study is made using Students t-test of significance. Examining the aspects associated with energetics during the two extreme categories of winter seasonal precipitation years, higher heat flux convergence in excess years in the area of study of precipitation takes place. Diabatic heating shows cooling. Higher flux of convergence of kinetic energy and higher dissipation of kinetic energy are observed during surplus years.

Closing the Time-Varying Mass and Heat Budgets for Large Ocean Areas: The Tasman Box

Abstract The role of oceanic advection in seasonal-to-interannual balances of mass and heat is studied using a 12-yr time series of quarterly eddy-resolving expendable bathythermograph (XBT) surveys around the perimeter of a region the authors call the Tasman Box in the southwestern Pacific. The region contains the South Pacific’s subtropical western boundary current system and associated strong mesoscale variability. Mean geostrophic transport in the warm upper ocean (temperature greater than 12°C) is about 3.8 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) southward into the box across the Brisbane, Australia–Fiji northern edge. Net outflows are 3.3 Sv eastward across the Auckland, New Zealand–Fiji edge, and 2.7 Sv southward across Sydney, Australia–Wellington, New Zealand. Mean Ekman convergence of 2.2 Sv closes the mass budget. Net water mass conversions in the upper ocean consist of inflow of waters averaging about 26°C and 35.4 psu balanced by outflow at about 18°C and 35.7 psu, and reflect the net evaporation and heat loss in the formation of South Pacific Subtropical Mode Water. The mean heat balance shows good agreement between ocean heat flux convergence (42.3 W m−2), heat loss to the atmosphere from the NCEP–NCAR reanalysis (39.2 W m−2), and heat storage calculated from data in the box interior (1.3 W m−2). On interannual time scales, volume transport through the box ranges from about 1 to 9 Sv, with heat flux convergence ranging from about 20 to 60 W m−2. An interannual balance in the heat budget of the warm layer is achieved to within about 10 W m−2 (or 6 W m−2 for the upper 100 m alone). Maxima in the advective heat flux convergence occurred in 1993, 1997, and 1999–2000, and corresponded to maxima in air–sea heat loss. The evolution of surface-layer temperature in the region is the residual of nearly equal and opposing effects of ocean heat flux convergence and air–sea exchange. Hence, ocean circulation is a key element in the interannual heat budget of the air–sea climate system in the western boundary current region.

Mechanisms Forcing an Antarctic Dipole in Simulated Sea Ice and Surface Ocean Conditions

Abstract The mechanisms forcing variability in Southern Ocean sea ice and sea surface temperature from 600 years of a control climate coupled model integration are discussed. As in the observations, the leading mode of simulated variability exhibits a dipole pattern with positive anomalies in the Pacific sector associated with negative anomalies in the Atlantic. It is found that in the Pacific ocean circulation changes associated with variable wind forcing modify the ocean heat flux convergence and sea ice transport, resulting in sea surface temperature and sea ice anomalies. The Pacific ice and ocean anomalies persist over a number of years due to reductions in ocean shortwave absorption reinforcing the initial anomalies. In the Atlantic sector, no single process dominates in forcing the anomalies. Instead there are contributions from changing ocean and sea ice circulation and surface heat fluxes. While the absorbed solar radiation in the Atlantic is modified by the changing surface albedo, the anomalies are much shorter-lived than in the Pacific because the ocean circulation transports them northward, removing them from ice formation regions. Sea ice and ocean anomalies associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode both exhibit a dipole pattern and contribute to the leading mode of ice and ocean variability.

The Transient Atmospheric Response to Midlatitude SST Anomalies

Abstract To study the transient atmospheric response to midlatitude SST anomalies, a three-layer quasigeostrophic (QG) model coupled to a slab oceanic mixed layer in the North Atlantic is used. As diagnosed from a coupled run in perpetual winter conditions, the first two modes of SST variability are linked to the model North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and eastern Atlantic pattern (EAP), respectively, the dominant atmospheric modes in the Atlantic sector. The two SST anomaly patterns are then prescribed as fixed anomalous boundary conditions for the model atmosphere, and its transient responses are established from a large ensemble of simulations. In both cases, the tendency of the air–sea heat fluxes to damp the SST anomalies results in an anomalous diabatic heating of the atmosphere that, in turn, forces a baroclinic response, as predicted by linear theory. This initial response rapidly modifies the transient eddy activity and thus the convergence of eddy momentum and heat fluxes. The latter transforms the baroclinic response into a growing barotropic one that resembles the atmospheric mode that had created the SST anomaly in the coupled run and is thus associated with a positive feedback. The total adjustment time is as long as 3–4 months for the NAO-like response and 1–2 months for the EAP-like one. The positive feedback, in both cases, is dependent on the polarity of the SST anomaly, but is stronger in the NAO case, thereby contributing to its predominance at low frequency in the coupled system. However, the feedback is too weak to lead to an instability of the atmospheric modes and primarily results in an increase of their amplitude and persistence and a weakening of the heat flux damping of the SST anomaly.

The Impact of Horizontal Resolution on the Tropical Heat Budget in an Atlantic Ocean Model

Abstract An ocean general circulation model (OGCM) of the tropical Atlantic is coupled to an advective atmospheric boundary layer model. This configuration is used to investigate the hypothesis that resolving tropical instability waves (TIWs) in OGCMs will remove the equatorial cold bias that is a feature common to coarse-resolution OGCMs. It is shown that current eddy parameterizations cannot capture the TIW heat flux because diffusion in coarse-resolution OGCMs removes heat from the warm pool to heat the equatorial cold tongue, whereas TIWs draw their heat mostly from the atmosphere. Thus, they can bring more heat to the equatorial cold tongue without cooling the warm pool, and the SST in the warm pool is higher and more realistic. Contrary to expectations, the SST in the equatorial cold tongue is not significantly improved. The equatorial warming due to TIWs is slightly greater than the warming due to diffusion, but this increased equatorial heat flux in the high-resolution experiment is compensated by increased equatorial entrainment there. This is attributed to the Equatorial Undercurrent being stronger, thereby increasing the entrainment rate through shear instability. Thus, higher resolution does not significantly increase the total oceanic heat flux convergence in the equatorial mixed layer.

Why is There an Evaporation Minimum at the Equator?*

At all longitudes oceanic evaporation rates are lower on the equator than at latitudes to the north and south. Over the oceanic cold tongues this is related to the presence of cold water and divergence of heat by the ocean circulation. Herein is investigated why there is also a minimum over the Indo-Pacific warm pool. Model results confirm the recent suggestion of Sobel that deep convective clouds over the warm pool reduce the amount of solar radiation coming into the ocean that the evaporation has to balance. The results also confirm that this is only a partial explanation. Less evaporation over the warm pool than in the trade wind regions is also caused by an interaction between the ocean heat transport and the distribution of surface wind speeds. Low wind speeds over the warm pool reduce the latent heat flux and increase the SST, and stronger wind speeds in the off-equatorial regions of the Tropics increase the latent heat flux and cool the SST. Consequently, the wind speed distribution increases the meridional temperature gradient and increases the poleward ocean heat transport. Low latent heat fluxes over the warm pool can be sustained because the incoming solar radiation is partially offset by ocean heat flux divergence. Large values under the trade winds are sustained by ocean heat flux convergence. Climate models are used to show that, in equilibrium, wind speeds can only influence the latent heat flux distribution through their coupling to the ocean heat transport. In the presence of ocean heat transport, advection of moisture in the atmospheric boundary layer from the subtropics to the equator also increases the evaporation under the trade winds, but this has a much smaller effect than the wind speed or the cloud-radiation interactions.

Is the Gulf Stream responsible for Europe's mild winters?

AbstractIs the transport of heat northward by the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift, and its subsequent release into the midlatitude westerlies, the reason why Europe's winters are so much milder than those of eastern North America and other places at the same latitude? Here, it is shown that the principal cause of this temperature difference is advection by the mean winds. South‐westerlies bring warm maritime air into Europe and north‐westerlies bring frigid continental air into north‐eastern North America. Further, analysis of the ocean surface heat budget shows that the majority of the heat released during winter from the ocean to the atmosphere is accounted for by the seasonal release of heat previously absorbed and not by ocean heat‐flux convergence. Therefore, the existence of the winter temperature contrast between western Europe and eastern North America does not require a dynamical ocean. Two experiments with an atmospheric general‐circulation model coupled to an ocean mixed layer confirm this conclusion. The difference in winter temperatures across the North Atlantic, and the difference between western Europe and western North America, is essentially the same in these models whether or not the movement of heat by the ocean is accounted for. In an additional experiment with no mountains, the flow across the ocean is more zonal, western Europe is cooled, the trough east of the Rockies is weakened and the cold of north‐eastern North America is ameliorated. In all experiments the west coast of Europe is warmer than the west coast of North America at the same latitude whether or not ocean heat transport is accounted for. In summary the deviations from zonal symmetry of winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere are fundamentally caused by the atmospheric circulation interacting with the oceanic mixed layer. Copyright © 2002 Royal Meteorological Society.

Mechanism study of the ENSO and southern high latitude climate teleconnections

Evidence of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnections in the southern high latitude climate has been identified, although the mechanisms that might lead to such far‐reaching teleconnections remain unresolved. Here we propose one such mechanism‐the regional mean meridional atmospheric circulation (the regional Ferrel Cell)‐responsible for the covariability of the ENSO and Antarctic Dipole (ADP; a predominant interannually‐varying signal in the southern high latitudes). It is found that the altered storm tracks associated with the ENSO variability influence the regional Ferrel Cell indirectly by changing the meridional eddy heat flux divergence and convergence, and shifting the latent heat release zone. The changes of the regional Ferrel Cell then influence the southern high latitude climate by modulating the mean meridional heat flux.

Postfrontal Airmass Modification

The northeastern United States is subject to relatively frequent passages of frontal systems during the growing season. After a frontal passage, the newly arrived air mass is gradually modified by the underlying, mostly vegetated landscape. For the 1995–98 growing seasons, 25 frontal sequences with at least 4 days between frontal passages were identified; 16 had sufficient data continuity for rigorous analysis. A composite of sequences featuring the daily appearance of boundary layer cumulus clouds (BLcu) indicates a diminished role for entrainment and other external forcings because of the daily occurrence of a rapid growth phase in the mixed-layer (ML) diurnal evolution subsequent to day 1. Between frontal passages, net heat and moisture flux convergence in the ML is near zero, but during the warming and moistening phase, the surface flux terms, through a net radiation–BLcu feedback, are the principal controls on the tendencies of the ML temperature θ and specific humidity q. The combination of the θ and q tendencies leads to a nearly constant lifting condensation level, relative humidity, and BLcu cloud fraction during the latter part of the sequences. The presence of BLcu enhances water use efficiency and net afternoon carbon uptake throughout the sequence, with day 4 featuring optimal conditions. A multiday box model was used to perform sensitivity studies on subsidence, the lapse rate γθυ above the ML, cloud mass flux, and the regional surface Bowen ratio βreg. The effects of subsidence and γθυ on ML processes are most conspicuous on day 1; during subsequent days, the rapid growth phase dominates the ML growth equation and reduces the impact of these external terms. Increasing βreg to 3.5 reduces BLcu fraction to less than 20% and produces little net moistening of the ML, whereas reducing βreg by 30% increases sequence BLcu coverage by 30%–80%. In sum, the presence of a net radiation–BLcu feedback allows for the establishment of an equilibrium in the ML heat and moisture tendencies and ensures the appearance of BLcu on each day of the sequence, thus sustaining favorable conditions for forest–atmosphere exchange (i.e., carbon uptake).

Regional Variability of the Arctic Heat Budget in Fall and Winter*

In the Arctic atmosphere, the fall cooling cycle involves the evolution of the zonally symmetric circulation in late summer into the asymmetric flow of winter. This paper uses historical reanalysis data to document how the dominant components of the Arctic heat budget influence the summer–winter transition. The spatial variability of 20-yr climatologies of 700-mb temperature and geopotential height, the net surface flux, and the horizontal convergence of eddy sensible heat fluxes are examined for September through February. The development of the zonal asymmetries in the temperature and geopotential height fields in the Arctic is linked to the land–water–ice distribution that regulates the surface fluxes and the baroclinic zones in the hemispheric circulation, which lead to regional heating/cooling by the transient and standing eddies. These eddies serve to transport the heat energy gained via the surface fluxes over the North Atlantic and North Pacific to the continental and ice-covered regions of the central Arctic, where the net surface flux is small. The transient eddies are especially important in the Atlantic and Eurasian sectors of the Arctic, while the standing eddies play the larger role in the heat budget on the Pacific side of the Arctic in early to mid-winter. The Arctic oscillation (AO) has a small effect on the basinwide pattern of heating and cooling by the eddy circulations, but on smaller spatial scales there are isolated regions where the AO influences the Arctic heat budget.

A Simple Model Of The Convective Internal Boundary Layer And Its Application To Surface Heat Flux Estimates Within Polynyas

A simple model of the convective (thermal) internalboundary layer has been developed for climatologicalstudies of air-sea-ice interaction, where in situobservations are scarce and first-order estimates ofsurface heat fluxes are required. It is amixed-layer slab model, based on a steady-statesolution of the conservation of potentialtemperature equation, assuming a balance betweenadvection and turbulent heat-flux convergence. Boththe potential temperature and the surface heat fluxare allowed to vary with fetch, so the subsequentboundary-layer modification alters the fluxconvergence and thus the boundary-layer growth rate.For simplicity, microphysical and radiativeprocesses are neglected.

Eliassen–Palm Fluxes of the 2-Day Wave

Abstract High-Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI) winds and temperatures are used to diagnose a 2-day wave event detected in the Southern Hemisphere during January 1994. A novel aspect of this study is the focus upon the wave fluxes throughout the 65–100-km range, and their relationship to the background state. A wave “packet” composed of zonal wavenumbers 2, 3, and 4 propagates westward with a phase speed near 60 m s−1. The periods associated with zonal wavenumbers 2, 3, and 4 are 3.5, 2.1, and 1.7 days, respectively. The morphology of the 2-day temperature and wind fields is consistent with that of a developing baroclinic wave. The divergence of the Eliassen–Palm flux of zonal wavenumbers 2–4 is dominated by the vertical convergence of meridional heat flux. The wave driving (or Eliassen–Palm flux divergence per unit mass) is predominantly westward, with magnitudes on the order of 5 m s−1 day−1. A steady-state quasigeostrophic model of the mean meridionaI circulation is used to estimate the mean wind respon...

The Upper-Ocean Response to Surface Heating

Abstract Moored observations of atmospheric variables and upper-ocean temperatures from the Long-Term Upper-Ocean Study (LOTUS) and the Frontal Air-Sea Interaction Experiment (FASINEX) are used to examine the upper-ocean response to surface heating. FASINEX took place between January and June 1986 at 27°N, 7°M while LOTUS took place between May and October 1982 at 34°N, 7°W. The frequency-domain transfer function between rate of change of heat and the net surface heat flux is consistent with a one-dimensional heat balance between heating and convergence of vertical turbulent heat flux at timescales longer than the inertial. The observations satisfy the vertically integrated one-dimensional heat equation and indicate that the response to surface heating has been successfully isolated. Within the internal waveband, upward phase propagation in the response is inconsistent with a one-dimensional balance and the vertically integrated heat balance fails. The internal waveband response is explained as a balance ...

Eddy Heat Flux Convergence in the Troposphere and Its Effect on the Meridional Circulation and Ozone Distribution

In this study the vertical convergence of the eddy heat flux, found as a forcing term in the thermodynamic energy equation of the transformed Eulerian mean formulation, is estimated in the troposphere and in the lower stratosphere from climatalogical data. Results show that while the heating rates caused by these eddy effects are small in the stratosphere they may play an important role in tropospheric circulation. The eddy-caused additions to the forcing field are seen as a region of significant cooling in the midaltitudes at the midtroposphere level and of weak heating throughout the tropical region. This net global cooling is important in balancing net global heating. In addition, the heating due to meridional heat flux is found to dominate compared to heating due to the vertical heat flux. To study circulation changes, the residual mean circulation is calculated with and without the estimated eddy heating effects. The added forcing causes additional circulation in each hemisphere that coincides with the primary circulation due to zonal-mean diabatic heating. Therefore, the eddy heat flux convergence has a significant role in enhancing the zonal-mean residual circulation in the troposphere.

A Modeling Study of the Interannual Variability in the Wintertime North Atlantic Ocean

Abstract A new model for the upper North Atlantic Ocean is presented and used to hindcast the SST from 1950 to 1988. The model consists of a matrix of one-dimensional (independent) columns in which a variable-depth, bulk mixed layer overlies a diffusive convective thermocline. The climatological annual cycle of heat flux convergence by the oceanic circulation is implicitly included in the formulation of the forcing. The 39-yr control integration of the model includes as surface forcing the shortwave and net longwave radiation from a control integration of the community climate model. Sensible and latent heat fluxes are determined from instantaneous values of surface temperature, humidity, and wind speed from the atmospheric model, and the SST simulated by the ocean model using the bulk formulae. The hindcast is performed by repeating the control integration, adding the observed, monthly mean surface anomalies in surface temperature, humidity, and wind speed for the period 1950–88. Thus, the simulated SST ...