ENSO-Related Global Ocean Heat Content Variations

Abstract

Abstract The modulation of the full-depth global integrated ocean heat content (GOHC) by El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been estimated in various studies. However, the quantitative results and the mechanisms at work remain uncertain. Here, a dynamically consistent ocean state estimate is utilized to study the large-scale integrated heat content variations during ENSO events for the global ocean. The full-depth GOHC exhibits a cooling tendency during the peak and decaying phases of El Niño, which is a result of the negative surface heat flux (SHF) anomaly in the tropics (30°S–30°N), partially offset by the positive SHF anomaly at higher latitudes. The tropical SHF anomaly acts as a lagged response to damp the convergence of oceanic heat transport, which redistributes heat from the extratropics and the subsurface layers (100–440 m) into the upper tropical oceans (0–100 m) during the onset and peak of El Niño. These results highlight the global nature of the oceanic heat redistribution during ENSO events, as well as how the redistribution process affects the full-depth GOHC. The meridional heat exchange across 30°S and 30°N is driven by ocean current anomalies, while multiple processes contribute to the vertical heat exchange across 100 m simultaneously. Heat advection due to unbalanced mass transport is distinguished from the mass balanced one, with significant contributions from the meridional and zonal overturning cells being identified for the latter in the vertical direction. Results presented here have implications for monitoring the planetary energy budget and evaluating ENSO’s global imprints on ocean heat content in different estimates.