The effects of changes in ocean temperature on the atmosphere

The study of how the oceans affect the atmosphere is best tackled by considering the role of climatological ocean temperatures in determining the average atmospheric conditions. While it is not possible to isolate the real atmosphere's response to this climatological forcing, this can be done for a model atmosphere, e.g., by eliminating all other forcing. Section 2 reviews results of such experiments with the U.K. Meteorological Office 5-layer model and discusses the apparently greater importance of anomalies in forcing by tropical features. These experiments provide a basis for estimating the effects of anomalies; they can be confirmed by assessing the model's response to actual anomalies and comparing the results with observations to provide a check on the model's realism. Section 3 outlines the results of such experiments and observational comparisons for tropical anomalies, with the main emphasis on the feedback possibilities-i.e., on the response of surface winds and ocean-to-atmosphere energy fluxes. Section 4 summarizes the results on the response of models to middle-latitude ocean temperature anomalies.