In Search Of Ocean Heat - 18

Fig. 1 It's Not Just For California Anymore

I. Background

When a detective asked a bank robber "Why do you rob banks?" the bank robber replied "That is where the money is".

When the detective replied to the bank robber's question "Can I get a lighter sentence if I tell you where the suitcase with the money is?" the detective said "Describe the suitcase and its location" because if the detective didn't know the description and location he had no chance of finding it.

The same can be said of "ocean heat" because if we don't know how to describe it or where it is located we have no chance of finding it:

"The problem of how best to model advection and diffusion of “heat” in the ocean is not an easy one to solve. First, it is difficult to define what “heat” actually is in the ocean."

(The Photon Current - 16). Further, ocean heat is different compared to a suitcase because ocean heat is "on the move".

Where it moves to is well known to oceanographers who studied the laws of thermodynamics:

"TEOS-10 (Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater - 2010) is the international standard for the use and calculation of the thermodynamic properties of seawater, humid air and ice. It supersedes the former standard EOS-80 (Equation of State of Seawater 1980). TEOS-10 is used by oceanographers and climate scientists to calculate and model properties of the oceans such as heat content in an internationally comparable way." 

 (Wikipedia TEOS-10). The governing principle of the movement of "ocean heat" is:

"The second law of thermodynamics is a physical law based on universal empirical observation concerning heat and energy interconversions. A simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter (or 'downhill' in terms of the emperature gradient)."

(Wikipedia, 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). So, with that law in mind "the heat detective" has a strong likelihood of finding "where da heat at" (In Search Of Ocean Heat, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17). 

II. Scientific Description of "Ocean Heat"

Fig. 2 Annual Mean Temperature Change
over Land and over Ocean

A well informed scientist said this about "ocean heat":

"it is perfectly valid to talk of potential enthalpy, h0, as the 'heat content' and to regard the flux of h0 as the 'heat flux.' Moreover, h0 is shown to be more conserved than is θ by more than two orders of magnitude. This paper proves that the fluxes of h0 across oceanic sections can be accurately compared with the air–sea heat flux, irrespective of whether the fluxes of mass and of salt are zero across these ocean sections. This has implications for best oceanographic practice for the analysis of ocean observations and for the interpretation of 'temperature' in models." 

(Potential Enthalpy: A Conservative Oceanic Variable for Evaluating Heat Content and Heat Fluxes, emphasis added). The TEOS-10 process in (the software language) C++ is:

1) double Z = teosSea.gsw_z_from_depth(depth);
2) double P = teosSea.gsw_p_from_z(Z, latitude);
3) double SA = teosSea.gsw_sa_from_sp(in situ Salinity, P, longitude, latitude);
4) double CT = teosSea.gsw_ct_from_t(SA, T, P);
5) double pt = teosSea.gsw_pt_from_ct(SA, CT);
6) double hO = teosSea.gsw_pot_enthalpy_from_pt(SA,pt);

(TEOS-10 C++, zip file). The 'Z' value is actually 'height',  a geodesy concept as with PSMSL RLR values.

III. Applying GISTEMP Surface Temperature Anomaly Data

The GISTEMP data (Fig. 2) shows ocean surface temperature anomaly values in the blue line.

I used those values to show that if the Second Law Of Thermodynamics is not considered when a heat detective is searching for ocean heat then the heat will not be accurately located. 

It will be down under moving from hot to cold, warm to cool.

Today's graphs show the in situ measurements taken by instruments that measure the actual temperature, actual salinity, and actual depth in oceans around the globe.

Those measurements are then placed in the World Ocean Database.

The graphs in today's appendices show those measured values in blue lines.

But more than that those values are then modified into new values with the GISTEMP values which are then represented by red lines.

The red lines show what the temperatures would be if there was no Second Law of Thermodynamics, a law which indicates that the incoming increasing heat from the Sun will not stay in place when it enters the surface waters of the oceans.

Instead, those photons of potential enthalpy/ocean heat, will flow into the colder water near them (usually below them).

IV. Grouped Oceans (Pelagic depth levels)

Group Misc_1 is composed of data from
Mediterranean, Black_Sea, Baltic_Sea,
Persian_Gulf, Red_Sea, Sulu_Sea and
Yellow_Sea sources.

Group Misc_2 is composed of data from
Sea_of_Japan, Seto_Inland_Sea, Hudson_Bay,
Andaman_Sea, Arabian_Sea, Bay_of_Bengal,
and Bering_Sea sources.

Group Misc_3 is composed of data from
Caribbean_Sea, Gulf_of_Mexico, North_Sea,
South_China_Sea, Sea_of_Okhotsk, and
Adriatic_Sea sources.

The following information indicates the depths that are covered in the appendices (depths are in meters):

Sea level to 250m (Epipelagic)
251m to 1000m (Mesopelagic)
1001m to 4000m (Bathypelagic)
4001m to 5500m (Abyssopelagic)
5501 to bottom (Hadopelagic)

Appendices with all five depths have the "ALL" indicator instead of the "Ho" indicator or the "CT" indicator.

V. The Two TEOS-10 Values

The appendices are of type types, which are "Ho" and "CT".

The "Ho" appendices detail Potential Enthalpy (ocean heat), the "CT" appendices detail Conservative Temperature.

Here are the links to those appendices (Apndx Ho EPI, Apndx Ho MESO, Apndx Ho BATHY, Apndx Ho ABYSSO, Apndx Ho HADO, Apndx Ho ALL, Apndx CT EPI, Apndx CT MESO, Apndx CT BATHY, Apndx CT ABYSSO, Apndx CT HADO, Apndx CT ALL).

VI. What Matters Most

What is shown and what matters most is that if there was no Second Law of Thermodynamics the heat would be very easy to find ... just put your finger into the water and OUCH! it would be hotter than ever.

So, check out the appendices.

Yes, I know, some of the locations have all-mixed-up lines (the polar oceans due to extreme temperatures, and the Misc oceans because different environments are mixed together).

VII. Closing Comments

Be glad that the actual temperatures (blue lines) are easier to live with than the red lines are.

The previous post in this series is here.