An evaluation of the National Meteorological Center weekly hindcast of upper-ocean temperature along the Eastern Pacific Equator in Junuary 1992

Journal Article · Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of Climate; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(1993)006<1221:AEOTNM>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:5897038

Halpern, D ^[1]; Ji, Ming ^[2]

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1. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (United States)
2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC (United States)

The interannual El Nino warming of the surface waters of the eastern equatorial Pacific produces global atmospheric climate variations. The upper-ocean temperature distribution along the Pacific equator from 139[degrees] to 103[degrees] W was observed in January 1992 with temperature profiles recorded from a ship and inferred from an ocean general circulation model calculation involving data assimilation (i.e., hindcast). An El Nino episode was in progress. The 100-m-thick mixed layer depth, the mixed-layer temperature, and the depth-averaged temperature below the thermocline were similar in both data products. Considerable differences occurred in the representation of the 15[degrees]-25[degrees]C thermocline, such as the depth-averaged temperatures above and below the 20[degrees]C isotherm, the east-west slope of the 20[degrees]C isotherm, and a 1000-km-wide depression, The longitudinal-averaged root-mean-square difference between the hindcast and observed depths of the center of the thermocline was 17 m. Most of the disparities could be attributed to a high wavenumber transient event that the model-based assimilation system was not intended to resolve. 23 refs., 2 figs.

• OSTI ID: 5897038
• Journal Information: Journal of Climate; (United States), Vol. 6:6; ISSN 0894-8755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
EVALUATION
SEAS
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
SOUTHERN OSCILLATION
ANNUAL VARIATIONS
EQUATOR
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
PACIFIC OCEAN
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
DISTRIBUTION
SURFACE WATERS
VARIATIONS
540310* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- (1990-)