What is meridional transport?
What is meridional transport?
When we consider the meridional struc- ture, the earth receives more energy than it emits in tropical latitudes, while the opposite is the case in polar latitudes. To attain a local balance, there must be transport of energy from the tropics to the polar latitudes, either by the atmosphere or by the ocean.
What is the poleward heat transport?
A significant characteristic of the large-scale North Atlantic circulation is the poleward transport of heat. This heat is absorbed by the tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans as well as of the Atlantic and is then transferred to the high latitudes, where it is finally given up to the atmosphere.
How does the atmosphere transport energy poleward?
In the time mean, the atmosphere carries heat meridionally by moving poleward air parcels with high moist static energy and moving equatorward air parcels with low moist static energy (e.g., Held 2001). 1a, the non mass corrected poleward heat transport from the ERA interim data set to be described more fully in Sect.
Where is the latitudinal transport the greatest?
The transport must be largest in mid-latitudes where the curves in Figure 7 cross one another. Figure 7. Annual-mean net incoming solar radiation (solid line) and outgoing terrestrial radiation (dashed line) as a function of latitude, expressed in units of W m−2.
What is the difference between zonal and meridional flow?
Zonal flow is defined as west to east or east to west, while meridional flow indicates north-to-south or south-to-north air motion.
What is poleward heat transport and why does it occur?
By carrying warm surface water poleward, this loop acts like a heat pump in which sensible heat is acquired in tropical and equatorial regions and is moved northward into the North Atlantic, where it is transferred to the air. Since wind patterns move air eastward at higher latitudes, this heat ultimately warms Europe.
What would happen if ocean convection stopped?
If for some reason convection stopped, air would not circulate, and weather would stop. Air wouldn’t flow over the waters, suck up moisture and then rain it out on land. Without this rain, all plants and crops would die.
Where is poleward heat transfer greatest?
Based on a reanalysis of data gathered between February 1985 and April 1989, the study shows that the atmosphere handles 78% of the total heat transport in the Northern Hemisphere and 92% in the Southern Hemisphere at 35 degrees latitude–where the total poleward transport in each hemisphere peaks.
What is the average net radiation budget of Earth?
Of the ~340 W/m2 of solar radiation received by the Earth, an average of ~77 W/m2 is reflected back to space by clouds and the atmosphere and ~23 W/m2 is reflected by the surface albedo, leaving ~240 W/m2 of solar energy input to the Earth’s energy budget. This amount is called the absorbed solar radiation (ASR).
What is a zonal mean?
1 : of, relating to, affecting, or having the form of a zone a zonal boundary. 2 : of, relating to, or being a soil or a major soil group marked by well-developed characteristics that are determined primarily by the action of climate and organisms (such as vegetation) — compare azonal, intrazonal.
How is global meridional Eddy heat transport important?
Proportion and pathways of the eddy-induced heat transport are critical in maintaining world’s ocean and climate states. However, an observation-based three-dimensional picture of how oceanic eddies contribute to the global heat transport is yet not quantitatively specified, particularly due to insufficiency of data.
Where does the Eddy heat transport take place?
The eddy heat transport is mainly confined in the upper 1000 m of the western part and mid-latitudes of the world’s ocean basins, coinciding with maximum meridional temperature gradients.
How are eddies related to latitude and longitude?
It is revealed that all parameters of eddies vary significantly with both latitudes and longitudes, which is crucial in yielding spatially varying heat fluxes and transports.
How are eddies related to heat in the ocean?
We first presented the spatial differences of individual eddies by reconstructing 254 representative eddies all over the ocean, and then calculated heat fluxes associated with eddies in 5° × 5° boxes.
