Monitoring the regional Ocean Heat Content change over the Atlantic Ocean with the space geodetic approach

Type Article
Acceptance Date 2023-07-26 IN PRESS
Language English
Author(s) Rousseau VictorORCID1, Fraudeau RobinORCID1, Hammond MatthewORCID2, Houndegnonto Odilon JoëlORCID4, 5, 11, Ablain MichaëlORCID1, Blazquez AlejandroORCID6, Calafat Fransisco MirORCID7, Desbruyères DamienORCID3, Foti Giuseppe2, Llovel William10, Marti FlorenceORCID1, Meyssignac BenoîtORCID6, Restano Marco8, Benveniste JérômeORCID9
Affiliation(s) 1 : MAGELLIUM, Ramonville Saint-Agne, 31520, France
2 : National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom
3 : Univ Brest, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM, F29280, Plouzané, France
4 : Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, United States of America
5 : International Chair in Mathematical Physics and Applications (ICPMA-UNESCO Chair), University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin
6 : LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, UPS, IRD, 31000, Toulouse, France
7 : National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, United Kingdom
8 : SERCO-ESRIN, Frascati, 00044, Italy
9 : ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, 00044, Italy
10 : Univ Brest, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM, F29280, Plouzané, France
11 : Univ Brest, CNRS, Ifremer, IRD, Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale (LOPS), IUEM, F29280, Plouzané, France
Source Earth System Science Data (Copernicus GmbH) In Press
DOI 10.5194/essd-2023-236
Note this preprint is currently under review for the journal ESSD.
Abstract

The estimation of the regional Ocean Heat Content (OHC) is essential for climate analysis and future climate predictions. In this study, we propose a method to estimate and propagate uncertainties in regional OHC changes. The OHC is estimated with space geodetic steric data corrected from salinity variations estimated with in situ measurements. A variance-covariance matrix method is used to propagate uncertainties from space geodetic data to the OHC change. The integrated OHC change over the Atlantic basin is 0.17 W m-2  which represents 21 % of the global OHC trend, with significant trends observed in 52 % of the Atlantic basin. Uncertainties in OHC trends are mainly attributed to manometric sea level change uncertainties. We validate our space geodetic OHC estimates at two test sites, representing the subtropical and subpolar regions of the North Atlantic, highlighting their importance in understanding climate dynamics. Our results show good agreement between space geodetic estimates and in situ measurements in the North Atlantic region. The space geodetic OHC trends reveal a warming pattern in the southern and western parts of the North Atlantic, particularly in the Gulf Stream region, while the northeastern part exhibits cooling trends. Overall, our study provides valuable insights and a new framework to estimate regional OHC change and its uncertainties, contributing to a better understanding of the Earth's climate system and its future projections. The space geodetic OHC change product (version 1.0) is freely available at https://doi.org/10.24400/527896/a01-2022.012 (Magellium/LEGOS, 2022)

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Rousseau Victor, Fraudeau Robin, Hammond Matthew, Houndegnonto Odilon Joël, Ablain Michaël, Blazquez Alejandro, Calafat Fransisco Mir, Desbruyères Damien, Foti Giuseppe, Llovel William, Marti Florence, Meyssignac Benoît, Restano Marco, Benveniste Jérôme. Monitoring the regional Ocean Heat Content change over the Atlantic Ocean with the space geodetic approach. Earth System Science Data IN PRESS. Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2023-236 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00848/96002/