Articles | Volume 14, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-6445-2021
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-6445-2021
Methods for assessment of models
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25 Oct 2021
Methods for assessment of models | Highlight paper |  | 25 Oct 2021

The interpretation of temperature and salinity variables in numerical ocean model output and the calculation of heat fluxes and heat content

Trevor J. McDougall, Paul M. Barker, Ryan M. Holmes, Rich Pawlowicz, Stephen M. Griffies, and Paul J. Durack

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Cited articles

Bi, D., Dix, M., Marsland, S., O'Farrell, S., Sullivan, A., Bodman, R., Law, R., Harman, I., Srbinovsky, J., Rashid, H. A., Dobrohotoff, P., Mackallah, C., Yan, H., Hirst, A., Savita, A., Dias, F. B., Woodhouse, M., Fiedler, R., and Heerdegen, A.: Configuration and spin-up of ACCESS-CM2, the new generation Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator Coupled Model J. South. Hemisphere Earth Syst. Sci., 70, 225–251, https://doi.org/10.1071/ES19040, 2020. 
Emile-Geay, J. and Madec, G.: Geothermal heating, diapycnal mixing and the abyssal circulation, Ocean Sci., 5, 203–217, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-5-203-2009, 2009. 
Feistel, R.: A Gibbs function for seawater thermodynamics for −6 to 80 C and salinity up to 120 g kg−1, Deep-Sea Res. Pt. I, 55, 1639–1671, 2008. 
Feistel, R., Wright, D. G., Kretzschmar, H.-J., Hagen, E., Herrmann, S., and Span, R.: Thermodynamic properties of sea air, Ocean Sci., 6, 91–141, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-6-91-2010, 2010. 
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Short summary
We show that the way that the air–sea heat flux is treated in ocean models means that the model's temperature variable should be interpreted as being Conservative Temperature, irrespective of whether the equation of state used in an ocean model is EOS-80 or TEOS-10.