Synthesis and evaluation of historical heat transport in the ocean and atmosphere

Meridional Energy Transport, both in the ocean (OMET) and atmosphere (AMET), is one of the key aspects of the climate system. This study focuses on the AMET & OMET from mid-latitudes to the Arctic. The quantification of AMET & OMET is based on the reanalysis products, which include ERA-Interim, MERRA2, JRA55 for the atmosphere and ORAS4, GLORYS2V3, SODA3 for the ocean. The mean heat transports in all datasets agree well, whereas the spatial distribution and temporal variation of AMET & OMET, deviate substantially. This results in a large difference in the low frequency variability of AMET & OMET at certain latitudes. Only after 2010 multiannual variations in the reanalysis products agree well. A comparison with the observation in the Atlantic ocean shows that all the heat transport estimated from the chosen oceanic reanalysis datasets are acceptable.