Year to year changes in sea-surface temperature, North Atlantic and North Sea, 1948-1974
Colebrook, J.M.; Taylor, A.H. (1979). Year to year changes in sea-surface temperature, North Atlantic and North Sea, 1948-1974. Deep-Sea Res. A 26(7): 825-850
In: Deep-Sea Research, Part A. Oceanographic Research Papers. Pergamon: Oxford. ISSN 0198-0149; e-ISSN 1878-2477, more
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| Keywords |
Motion > Water motion > Vertical water movement > Upwelling
Phase changes > Vaporization > Evaporation
Sea surface temperature
Temporal variations > Periodic variations > Annual variations
Transport processes > Advection
Marine/Coastal |
| Authors | | Top |
- Colebrook, J.M.
- Taylor, A.H.
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| Abstract |
The role of advection, evaporation, and upwelling in determining the sea-surface temperature of the North Atlantic and the North Sea is studied by establishing time series of year-to-year variability for the period 1948 to 1974 and by comparing these with wind strength indices derived from the pressure field. For the open ocean, secular temperature changes appear to be primarily advected and determined by variations in the North Atlantic Current. An increase in the flow of the Gulf Stream results in warmer waters in the vicinity of the Sargasso Sea and cooling of the surface waters at higher latitudes. Over the European shelf and in the North Sea, on the other hand, the surface temperatures appear to be determined to a large extent by direct heat exchange with the atmosphere, mediated primarily by the meridional component of the surface winds. |
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