[ecco-support] Differences between forcing variables in flux-forced ECCOv4r4

[Dafydd Stephenson]

Hi all,
I’ve recently set-up and run the flux-forced version of ECCOv4r4 (https://github.com/ECCO-GROUP/ECCO-v4-Configurations/tree/master/ECCOv4%20Release%204/flux-forced), but some of the forcing variables used by this version do not seem to be documented in the MITgcm manual.

In particular, I am unable to find information on the variable “saltflx” other than a note added here http://wwwcvs.mitgcm.org/viewvc/MITgcm/MITgcm/doc/tag-index?revision=1.2291&view=markup&sortby=date&pathrev=checkpoint63 , and similarly “spflx” which I have believe is a “salt plume flux” in g/m2/s.

I have a few questions about this configuration:

  *   What is the difference (other than the units) between sflux and saltflx?
  *   Why are all three of saltflx, sflux, and spflx necessary for the flux-forced run, as opposed to a single flux variable impacting salinity?
  *   Similarly, why do we have two heat flux terms (hflux and swflux), the latter of which is entirely contained within the former (hflux = latent + sensible + lwflux + swflux) ? Is this related to the subsurface penetration of SW fluxes?
  *   The paper Fukumori et al., 2021, JPO (https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-21-0069.1), which uses this config, states: “whereas heat and freshwater fluxes are dependent in the bulk-formula version, the two are independent in the flux-forced version, thus permitting unambiguous determination of their individual effects.” – does independence here refer to the fact that they are not derived from common quantities (such as specific humidity), rather than being statistically independent, which would suggest they do not covary?

Thanks in advance for any help with this!
Best wishes,
Dafydd


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