Global Upper Ocean Heat Content and Climate Variability

Observational data from the Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Program (GTSPP) were used to calculate the upper ocean heat content (OHC) anomaly. The thickness of the upper layer is taken as 300 m for the Pacific/Atlantic Ocean and 150 m for the Indian Ocean since the Indian Ocean has shallower thermoclines. First, the optimal spectral decomposition (OSD) scheme was used to build up monthly synoptic temperature and salinity data set for January 1990 to December 2009 on 1o×1o grids and ...