Diurnal warming: use of ocean colour products?
• Previous research has used chlorophyll to look at solar radiation absorption e.g.
- Ohlmann & Siegel (2000): Used values of solar zenith angle, upper
ocean chlorophyll concentration and cloud index used to drive the two-equation
solar transmission model.
- Wetzel et. al. (2006) used a fully coupled state-of-the-art climate model
to investigate the influence of marine phytoplankton on global climate and its
variability. Fixed attenuation depth of 11 m in the “fixed ocean” control run and a
“green ocean” setup where half of the radiation is absorbed in the first layer and
the other half is attenuated with an attenuation depth that varies between 0 and 25
m, dependent on biology.
• Chang & Dickey (2004) suggested that CDOM and possibly detritus can have a
significant impact on the transmission of solar radiation through the upper water
column in coastal waters and hence the radiant heating rate and the heat budget.
Page 1
GHRSST-PP 8th Meeting: 14-18 May 2007, Melbourne
Samantha Lavender
Example of diurnal warming ?
23rd July 2006
GlobColour
Chlorophyll-a
AMSR-E
nSST_diff
Page 2
Coccolithophore
bloom
GlobColour
Coloured
Dissolved & Detrital
Matter
GlobColour
Particle
Backscattering
AMSR-E
AOD
AMSR-E
Windspeed
GHRSST-PP 8th Meeting: 14-18 May 2007, Melbourne
Samantha Lavender