Comparison of MERRA-2 and ECCO-V4 Ocean Surface Heat Fluxes: Consequences of Different Forcing Feedbacks on Ocean Circulation and Implications for Climate Data Assimilation

Abstract: Forcing ocean models with reanalysis data is a common practice in ocean modeling. As part of this practice, prescribed atmospheric state variables and interactive ocean SST (Sea Surface Temperature) are used to calculate fluxes between the ocean and the atmosphere. When forcing an ocean model with reanalysis fields, errors in the reanalysis data, errors in the ocean model and errors in the forcing formulation will generate a different solution compared to other ocean reanalysis solutions (whi…