On Zonal Asymmetries in the Heat Budget of the Tropical Oceans

Abstract

The oceanic heat budget is calculated by conventional methods from ship observations in the Tropical Atlantic and Eastern Pacific during 1911-70. Zonal asymmetries between the Eastern and Western part of the oceans are studied at the examples of the warm Gulf Stream and Brazil, and the cold Canary, Benguela, and Humboldt Current domains. For the same latitude belt, the Canary Current area has a smaller latent heat flux and performs an export of energy to other parts of the globe of 39W m^-2 in the annual mean as compared to an import of 43W m^-2 in the Gulf Stream region. Off the Pacific coasts of Peru and Chile and the coasts of Southwest Africa, net radiation is reduced by extensive cloudiness, and latent and sensible heat fluxes are also comparatively small. Residual heat export within the oceanic water body is of similar magnitude as in the Brazil Current region, annual mean values amounting to 42, 16, and 30W m^-2, respectively.