Heat and Freshwater Budgets of the Caribbean Sea with Revised Estimates for the Central American Seas

Abstract

ODSI Defense Systems, Inc., Rockville, MD 20852, USA ISSN 0022-3670 J (Journal-Article) M (Marine) Monthly multi-annual mean heat budgets are calculated for the Caribbean Sea; previous results from the Gulf of Mexico are included to portray fields for the combined Central American seas. Oceanic heat storage rates (Q sub(T)) for the upper 200 meters in the Caribbean are calculated directly from vertical subsurface temperature data for the decade 1967-76; spatial distributions of Q sub(T) are contoured on maps for February, May, August and November. In the Gulf of Mexico, Q sub(T) was found to be determined principally by the surface heat exchange. In the Caribbean Sea, Q sub(T) is related primarily to convergence and divergence of heat transport; Q sub(T) patterns in the southern Caribbean can be associated with Ekman pumping and heat advection due to currents. An analysis of the freshwater flux in the Central American seas, using typ...