The Saturation Chronicles

Known knowns and unknown unknowns

I. Background

This series sprang from The Photon Current series (The Photon Current, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 , 17, 18, 19, 20, 21).

This post in this new series has specific variations from that series.

The subject matter changed substantially when the focus became "Did heat saturation in ocean depths change the clock, and if so what and how much does it take to "saturate" a quantity of seawater with heat?"

II. Appendix Graphs

Today's appendix (Saturation) contains graphs that indicate the percentage of saturation that has taken place in various ocean areas at up to 33 depth levels since 1950.

What the graphs make somewhat obvious is that saturation events are taking place.

But also, they show that those saturation events are a constantly changing dynamic.

What is not obvious is how much heat can a cubic meter of seawater absorb?

To convert the unknown into the known a lot of things must be considered.

Serious research needs to proceed with alacrity, so this series is dedicated to that pursuit.

III. Discussion

First of all, I used the World Ocean Database manual to begin the research.

In Appendix 11 of that manual various "Maximum Temperature", "Maximum Salinity", and depth values are given for a list of oceans around the globe.

I am relying on those values so I can compare the recorded temperature and salinity values at various depths which apply to that list of oceans.

The fundamental arithmetic is to:

1) calculate the maximum saturation values of potential enthalpy using the manual's maximum value figures;

2) calculate the recorded potential enthalpy using the recorded measurement values in the WOD database;

3) divide the calculated maximum potential enthalpy (1)  into the recorded potential enthalpy values (2);

4) multiply that derived fraction value by 100.0 to attain the percent of saturation that existed at the time and place the measurements were acquired by researchers. 

Deriving the h^o (potential enthalpy, a.k.a. ocean heat content) involves a bit more as previous posts have shown.

The values used to calculate the heat content are as follows:

T = in situ temperature (thermometer measurement, degrees C)
SP = in situ salinity measurement
lat = latitude
lon = longitude
d = depth in meters
P = pressure

I use about 5.5 billion in situ values from the World Ocean Database (WOD Update) ...

Let's continue:

SA = Absolute Salinity (TEOS-10)
CT = Conservative Temperature (TEOS-10)
pt = Potential Temperature (TEOS-10)
h^o = potential enthalpy (TEOS-10))
Z = height (TEOS-10) (a geodesic concept like RLR)

The basic calculation sequences go like this:

Z = gsw_z_from_depth(d); (TEOS-10 software library)
P = gsw_p_from_z(Z, lat); (TEOS-10 software library)
SA = gsw_sa_from_sp(SP, P, lon, lat); (TEOS-10 software library)
CT = gsw_ct_from_t(SA, T, P); (TEOS-10 software library)
pt = gsw_pt_from_ct(SA, CT); (TEOS-10 software library)
h^o = gsw_pot_enthalpy_from_pt(SA,pt); (TEOS-10 software library)

(TEOS-10 software library, TeosSea class). The potential enthalpy calculation must take place for the Maximum Temperature/Maximum Salinity values in the WOD manual at Appendix 11 as well as for each actual in situ temperature/salinity value.

To make each graph line, this procedure takes place for each year and each depth level so as to have in situ h^o values which are divided by the Maximum h^o values (to derive the percentage of saturation).

IV. Closing Comments

For example a Maximum of 50 T and an in situ measurement of 25 T is a 50% saturation: (25 deg C in situ T divided by 50 deg C maximum T, then multiplied by 100.00 = 50% saturation).

The maximums set forth in the WOD manual Appendix 11 are the point at which the atmospheric warming will no longer be absorbed by the ocean but will instead stay in the atmosphere.

Thus, the atmospheric temperatures would then, upon reaching saturation, continue upward in unexpected amounts because that 90-93% of atmospheric heat would no longer be absorbed by the oceans.

The only exception is that if there is cooler seawater adjacent to the saturated-with-heat seawater, then the heat will flow to the cooler seawater instead of staying in the atmosphere.

Stay tuned.

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