The heat and freshwater budgets of the Red Sea.
Elina Tragou,
Richard Outerbridge,
Chris Garrett and
Craig Gilman
J. Phys. Oceanogr., 29, 2504-2522, 1999.
The heat and freshwater transports through the Strait of Bab
el Mandab, connecting the Red Sea with the open ocean, are reviewed
and used to test air-sea fluxes from the UWM/COADS. Using historical
data for the volume fluxes and water properties, the annual
mean net heat transport through the Strait is found to require
an average surface heat loss of between 8 +- 2 W/m^2, while the
requirement for conservation of salt in the basin implies a
net evaporation rate of 1.60 +- 0.35 m/y, lower than previously considered.
The air-sea heat fluxes from UWM/COADS overestimate the total
heat flux by nearly 100 W/m^2; the discrepancy is attributed
to systematic errors in the bulk formulae used to calculate the
heat flux components. In particular insolation appears to be overestimated
by 36 W/m^2, largely due to the neglect of aerosols. The effect of these
is determined from ground stations and satellite data on the optical
thickness index. The net longwave radiation appears to be underestimated
by 21 W/m^2 or more. The latent heat flux from UWM/COADS may also
be underestimated as it corresponds to an evaporation rate of 1.60 m/y,
less than the 1.75 +- 0.35 m/y implied by the net evaporation defined
from the water budget, plus an annual average precipitation rate of
0.15 m/y from UWM/COADS. The net evaporation is the main contributor to the
annual mean buoyancy flux of approximately 2 10E-8 m^2 s^-3.
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