Characterization and validation of the heat storage variability from TOPEX/Poseidon at four oceanographic sites

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Abstract
Oceanic heat storage and heat storage rate are correlated to the sea surface height anomaly signals from the TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data from 1992 to 1998. The height anomaly data are decomposed through two‐dimensional finite impulse response filtering. The signal components are the basin‐scale (seasonal), westward propagating (Rossby waves), eastward propagating (Kelvin waves), and mesoscale eddies and a small‐scale residual. The sum of these filtered components does not depart significantly from the original signal. Correlations and rms differences are calculated to compare heat storage estimates on the basis of altimeter and in situ data at four sites: Tropical Atmosphere‐Ocean Array, Hawaii Ocean Time‐series Program, California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations, and hydrostation “S.” The heat storage anomaly differences range from 52 to 64×107 J m−2, and the correlations range from 0.67 to 0.88. The heat storage rate rms differences range from 97 to 228 W m−2, and the correlations range from 0.66 to 0.82. The fraction of the variance associated with Rossby waves varies from 13% in the equatorial Pacific to 62% in the tropical North Pacific. Conversely, in the same regions the nonpropagating signal goes from 74 to 13%.