Monday, February 23, 2026

In Search Of Ocean Heat - 22

Fly Me To The Moon?

I. Background

Some graphs previously presented in this series, featuring potential enthalpy (ho), contained some instances of negative (ho) values (less than 0.0 j/kg).

I have become concerned that there may not be any real negative potential enthalpy, unless we consider values in Kelvin (K) or that in some shallow depths those instances may have been ocean ice rather than ocean seawater.

The nature of heat in the ocean is not being studied enough because space travel and military super-might is fancied much more (A Shift, Why?) since our knowledge of the ocean depths is inadequate  even though the ocean is paramount in climate issues.

Anyway, today's HTML tables and graphs do not contain instances where potential enthalpy (ho) values are calculated to be zero or below.

Further, the appendices are designed to match each other in values (graph line values are constructed from HTML table line values).

One reason for Dredd Blog's constant attention to this matter is that the detailed explanation of ocean heat does not introduce negative (ho) values.

II. Graphs

The graphs (Appendix 1,  Appendix 2) attempt to show how the ocean heat is increasing and staying in the ocean for the most part, yet always on the move when warm water photons flow to cool water atoms (Second Law Of Thermodynamics).

III. HTML Tables 

In partnership with the graphs the HTML tables (Appendix 3,  Appendix 4Appendix 5,  Appendix 6) detail various in situ measurements converted into TEOS-10 values for the graphs.

IV. The Formulas 

Those in situ measurements from WOD database data are converted into TEOS-10 values as follows:

variables Z, T, P, SP, pt, CT,SA, ho, lat, lon;

"T" is the in situ temperature in degrees Celsius.
"SP" is the in situ salinity value.

"lat" is the latitude, "lon" is the longitude where the
T and SP in situ measurements were made.

"Z" relates to the depth at which the T and SP in situ measurements were made.
It is calculated using the TEOS-10 function Z = gsw_z_from_depth(depth).

"P" is the calculated pressure at the location where the T and SP measurements were gathered. 

P is calculated using the TEOS-10 function gsw_p_from_z(Z, lat);

"SA" is the TEOS-10 Absolute Salinity value calculated using the
TEOS-10 function SA = gsw_sa_from_sp(SP, P, lon, lat);

"CT" is the TEOS-10 Conservative Temperature calculated using the
TEOS-10 function CT = gsw_ct_from_t(SA, T, P);

"pt" is Potential Temperature calculated using the
TEOS-10 function pt = gsw_pt_from_ct(SA, CT);

"ho" is Potential Enthalpy (a.k.a. "ocean heat content") using the
TEOS-10 function ho = gsw_pot_enthalpy_from_pt(SA, pt);

Those "functions" are contained in the C++ software of TEOS-10.

The previous post in this series is here