Pan et al. (2026) Ocean meridional heat transport estimated from energy budget constraint

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Climate
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-03-27
• Authors: Yuying Pan, Lei Cheng, Andrea Storto, Michael Mayer, Sergey Gulev, Yuanlong Li, Kewei Lyu, Huayi Zheng, Huifeng Yuan
• DOI: 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0522.1

Research Groups

Not available in the provided abstract.

Short Summary

This study quantifies global oceanic meridional heat transport (MHT) from 1985 to 2023 using an energy budget approach, revealing distinct MHT patterns and controls in the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific oceans, and providing improved estimates for climate research.

Objective

• To accurately quantify global oceanic meridional heat transport (MHT), its climatology, variability, and trend, by applying an objective adjustment to ocean energy budget components.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, Indo-Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean; specific latitudes including 24.5°N, 13.5°S, and between 25°S and 18°N.
• Temporal Scale: 1985 to 2023.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Energy budget approach (derived from sea surface heat fluxes, ocean heat content tendency, and heat changes related to sea ice melt/formation).
• Data sources: Sea surface heat fluxes (Fs), ocean heat content tendency (OHCT), heat changes related to sea ice melt/formation (Q ice), RAPID and OSNAP mooring array observations (for validation), Ocean Heat Content (OHC) data.

Main Results

• Estimates show good agreement with RAPID and OSNAP mooring array observations.
• North Atlantic MHT is northward at all latitudes, peaking at 1.22 ± 0.07 petawatts (PW) at 24.5°N.
• Indo-Pacific MHT is poleward, peaking at −1.67 ± 0.06 PW at 13.5°S.
• Sea surface heat fluxes (Fs) primarily dominate the mean state of MHT.
• Ocean heat content tendency (OHCT) primarily controls the interannual variability of MHT.
• After 2000, the Indo-Pacific Ocean exhibited a statistically significant increase in MHT.
• After 2000, the Atlantic Ocean showed a basin-wide weakening of MHT, particularly between 25°S and 18°N.

Contributions

• Provides an improved and more accurate estimate of global, Indo-Pacific, and Atlantic oceanic MHT climatology, variability, and trend.
• Offers a robust dataset for evaluating ocean models and reanalysis products.
• Enhances the understanding of Earth's energy flow and its redistribution.

Funding

Not available in the provided abstract.

Citation

@article{Pan2026Ocean,
  author = {Pan, Yuying and Cheng, Lei and Storto, Andrea and Mayer, Michael and Gulev, Sergey and Li, Yuanlong and Lyu, Kewei and Zheng, Huayi and Yuan, Huifeng},
  title = {Ocean meridional heat transport estimated from energy budget constraint},
  journal = {Journal of Climate},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1175/jcli-d-25-0522.1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-25-0522.1}
}