The Available Potential Energy In The World Oceans And Its Sources/sinks From Surface Buoyancy Flux

The Available Potential Energy (APE) in the ocean can be transferred into kinetic energy of the ocean circulation. If the compressibility of seawater is considered, the APE should be divided into two parts: The Available Gravitational Potential Energy (AGPE) and The Available Internal Energy (AIE). To estimate total APE included in the world oceans and to set up the balance of APE will be helpful for us to understand the law of the ocean circulation's motion, and further more to improve the present ocean general circulation model (OGCM).For a long time, the APE estimation in the ocean was based on quasi-geostrophic (QG) approximation, where APE is replaced by AGPE and big error can be introduced when applied to global-scale problems. Besides, if the sources and sinks of APE were calculated by QG method, a conclusion would be reached that APE was mainly produced at the equator where the Heat Flux was the largest, which is in contradiction to the real physical process happening in the ocean where potential energy is released when dense water sinks into the deep ocean.In order to estimating the APE and it's sources and sinks in the oceans accurately, this research re-examined the QG method and found that it's suitable for meso-scale problems only. In addition, a totally new method be created and applied to calculate the contribution of the buoyancy flux, including the heat flux and freshwater flux at the sea surface, to the AGPE and AIE. It shows out that this new method can correctly reflect the real physical process.This is a basic theoretical research. A theoretical model was built up after the real physical process was recognized. New formulas were brought forward and simple programmes were made up for the whole calculation. Combined with WOA98, NCEP and Dasilva SMD 94 dataset, the total value of the meso-scale available gravitational...