The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming

Abstract Oceanic diurnal warm layers have been extensively studied over the years due to their important role in a variety of geophysical disciplines. Much of this research has been dedicated to the development of predictive models of varying complexity to calculate the spatiotemporal magnitude of t...

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Main Authors: Andrew Harris, Gary Wick, Sandra Castro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-05-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL114394
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author Andrew Harris
Gary Wick
Sandra Castro
author_facet Andrew Harris
Gary Wick
Sandra Castro
author_sort Andrew Harris
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Oceanic diurnal warm layers have been extensively studied over the years due to their important role in a variety of geophysical disciplines. Much of this research has been dedicated to the development of predictive models of varying complexity to calculate the spatiotemporal magnitude of the effect. This manuscript presents results which show that significant variability can be accounted for by addressing the combined impacts of atmospheric water vapor and solar zenith angle on both the spectral distribution of insolation energy at the water surface and its subsequent absorption within the water column. Comparisons with satellite‐observed diurnal amplitudes on the basin‐scale show that the new scheme provides notable improvements over one with a fixed insolation parameterization. One implication is that addressing the heat source term within the water column is a key first step when developing and tuning models of the diurnal layer.
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spelling doaj-art-9f73ea91f4ed465db779d667a9d88e462025-08-20T02:01:20ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072025-05-01529n/an/a10.1029/2024GL114394The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal WarmingAndrew Harris0Gary Wick1Sandra Castro2Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center NOAA Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies University of Maryland College Park MD USAPhysical Sciences Laboratory NOAA Boulder CO USAColorado Center for Astrodynamics Research University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USAAbstract Oceanic diurnal warm layers have been extensively studied over the years due to their important role in a variety of geophysical disciplines. Much of this research has been dedicated to the development of predictive models of varying complexity to calculate the spatiotemporal magnitude of the effect. This manuscript presents results which show that significant variability can be accounted for by addressing the combined impacts of atmospheric water vapor and solar zenith angle on both the spectral distribution of insolation energy at the water surface and its subsequent absorption within the water column. Comparisons with satellite‐observed diurnal amplitudes on the basin‐scale show that the new scheme provides notable improvements over one with a fixed insolation parameterization. One implication is that addressing the heat source term within the water column is a key first step when developing and tuning models of the diurnal layer.https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL114394diurnal warminginsolationwater vaporsolar zenith angle
spellingShingle Andrew Harris
Gary Wick
Sandra Castro
The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
Geophysical Research Letters
diurnal warming
insolation
water vapor
solar zenith angle
title The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
title_full The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
title_fullStr The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
title_full_unstemmed The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
title_short The Effect of Water Vapor and Solar Zenith Angle on Oceanic Diurnal Warming
title_sort effect of water vapor and solar zenith angle on oceanic diurnal warming
topic diurnal warming
insolation
water vapor
solar zenith angle
url https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL114394
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