Heat Storage In The Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

Results of the monthly climatological fields of heat storage for the Eastern Mediterranean are presented. The zonal annual trend of monthly mean heat storage in the Levantine, Aegean and Ionian Seas are shown as well as the horizontal distribution of the amplitude of the annual signal. These distributions are presented for the 0-100 and 0-300 m layers to describe the global geographic characteristics of the annual cycle of heat storage for the Mediterranean Sea east of Meridian 20°E. The hydrographic data used to estimate heat storage are the 0.5 degree spaced objectively analyzed field of temperature, which are based on about 1300 hydrographic stations retrieved from the NODC-Washington-DC data file, up to 1985. For both layers considered, the minimum heat storage was observed in March, whereas the maximum occurred in August for the upper 0-100 m layer and in September for the 0-300 m layer. The amount of heat stored and its duration are generally higher in the Levantine Basin. The geographical distribution of the amplitude of the annual signal is in good agreement with some general circulation schemes of the area under study.