Estimation of oceanic heat storage from satellite and model data

The heat storage anomaly of upper ocean can be estimated using satellite altimeter data, based on the thermal expansion of the water column. On the basin scale, the variation of salinity plays an important role on the change in sea surface height for estimation of heat storage of the world oceans. Unfortunately, in-situ salinity profiles are very spares both in time and space that we can not estimate continuously and directly using in-situ measurements in the global ocean. Therefore, it is thinkable to correct the heat storage anomaly by model salinity data. Correlations and root mean square differences are calculated to compare heat storage estimates with or without model salinity correction at three sites in the tropical Pacific Ocean. For the study regions, the use of model salinity estimates significantly decrease root mean square differences and improve the correlation. By using model salinity data makes it possible to continuously monitor the heat storage anomaly with haline correction in a global or basin scale with unprecedented in both time and space.