Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.6.
The polar cap domain (the region north of the 70
o
N circle) and the Arctic
Ocean domain for which energy budgets are examined (from Serreze et al.,
2007
, by
permission of AGU).
3.2.2
The Energy Budget Equations
The energy budget of any given atmospheric column is:
∂A
E
/∂t = −∇•
F
A
+ R
top
+ F
sfc
(3.2)
which says that the time change in the storage of energy in the column (∂A
E
/∂t)
is represented by the sum of the convergence of the horizontal flux of atmospheric
energy (−∇•
F
A
), R
top
, and the net surface heat flux (F
sfc
). If the sum of the three
terms on the right is positive, the atmospheric column gains energy. If their sum is
negative, the atmospheric column loses energy. All units are in W m
−2
. The basic
questions we are asking from Equation
3.3
is: what are the relative contributions of
the net fluxes of energy into the sides, top, and bottom of the atmospheric column
