NOAA's operational satellite ocean heat content products

ABSTRACT

NOAA generates a suite of Ocean Heat Content (OHC) products for the North Atlantic and the North and South Pacific basins on a daily basis. Knowledge of the upper Ocean Heat Content is a critical aid in assessing the ocean's impact on Tropical Cyclones (TCs) and weather events. In-situ and satellite measurements of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Sea Surface Height Anomaly (SSHA) are used to generate the OHC product suite. The evaluated suite includes the 20°C (D20) and 26°C (D26) isotherm depths, the mixed layer depth (MLD) and mapping errors. Two cases are presented within the context of situational awareness showing the underling oceanic variability during the lifecycles of TC's Irma and Dorian.

KEYWORDS:

• Intensity
• MLD
• thermocline
• isotherm
• joule

Acknowledgements

NOAA NESDIS provided support through CIMAS grants: NA10OAR4320143, NA13OAR4320892, and NA17OAR4320892 to the University of Miami. LKS and JKB also appreciates the support for the basic research used here in the transition from NASA (NNX09AC47G) as part of the Hurricane Science team as part the Genesis and Rapid Intensification Program and the Physical and Dynamical Meteorology Program at NSF (AGS-04-44525). The scientific results and conclusions, as well as any views or opinions expressed herein, are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of NOAA or the Department of Commerce.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NOAA/NESDIS [grant number NA20OAR4320472].

Notes on contributors

Eileen M. Maturi

Eileen M. Maturi attended under graduate school in Physics from George Mason University. She also attended graduate school in Oceanography from Old Dominion University. While attending George Mason, she was invited to work at the Naval Research Lab in Washington D.C. as a mathematics Aide in Acoustics. After graduate school she worked for NAVOCEANO in the Navy Yard in Washington D.C in ASW work. This required her to fly around the world in P3 Aircraft mapping the Oceans. The Oceanographer of the Navy invited her to work in the State Department for him. She attended National and International Meetings on Oceanographic Research and Policy. She chaired a national U.S. inter agency group to establish Policy. She would testify on the HILL about ocean policy. Currently she works for NOAA in the satellite line office and generates sea surface temperature products and ocean heat products.

Lynn N. Shay

Lynn N. Shay received the B.S. from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1976 and the M.S. and PhD. Degrees from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1983 and 1987, respectively, all in physical oceanography. He is currently a professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, Miami, FL and served as director of the Center of Air-Sea Interactions that includes the Upper Ocean Dynamics Laboratory. His research interests include experimental and theoretical investigations of the ocean response and coupled air-sea interactions during strong forcing events such as hurricanes, oceanographic profiling of upper ocean variability, coastal oceanographic process studies, and high frequency (HF) and satellite radar remote sensing to examine the linkages between surface signatures and upper ocean structure. He has authored over one hundred and twenty peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. Dr. Shay is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society and a member of the American Geophysical Union, The Oceanography Society and Sigma Xi National Research Honor Society. Dr. Shay has served as co-chief editor of the AMS Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanographic Technology-Oceans and editor-in-chief of Elsevier's Dynamics and Atmospheres.

David R. Donahue

David R. Donahue - Physical Scientist Originally from Sayville, New York BS Meteorology SUCO Oneonta, New York 1983 MS Meteorology UW-Madison, Wisconsin 1985 NOAA/NESDIS Contractor 1985-2008 Government Technical Monitor for ocean altimetry products since 2008.

Deirdre A. Byrne

Deirdre A, Byrne received a B.S. in fluid geophysics from Yale University in 1990 and the M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in Earth and Environmental Sciences from Columbia University in 1993, 1997 and 2000, respectively. She is currently an Oceanographer in the Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry at the Center for Satellite Applications and Research of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and serves as the Center's Sea Surface Height Science Team lead. Her research interests include the development of real-time applications for satellite altimetry, the synthesis of satellite and in situ information, ocean heat content, and the development of climate-ready algorithms for interpreting ocean data, thereby improving the representation of the ocean during extreme events. Dr Byrne is a member of the Oceanography and American Meteorological Societies and of the American Geophysical Union.