A Dynamic, Coupled Thermal Reservoir Approach to Atmospheric Energy Transfer Part Ii: Applications

Abstract

The coupled thermal reservoir approach described in Part I is demonstrated by analyzing flux and meteorological data covering a range of thermal reservoir conditions. These include mid latitude ocean thermal storage, the surface flux balance of the Pacific warm pool and the land surface flux balance in S. California. In addition to temperature data, the effects of thermal gradients, flux interaction lengths and the time delay or phase shift between the heating flux and the temperature response are considered. Long term climate trends in weather station minimum meteorological surface air temperature (MSAT) data are also analyzed. For selected California and UK weather stations these follow the regional trends in ocean surface temperature. This allows urban heat island effects and other weather station biases to be investigated. The effect of a 100 ppm increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration on these data sets is shown to be too small to be measured.