Advection and Diffusion Inferred from SST Anomaly Time Series

Abstract

In chapter 9 we introduced the background physics for the stochastic model originated by Hasselmann (1976). So far Hasselmann’s theory is the only theory that describes SST nonseasonal variability in the middle latitudes. The advection-diffusion equation (9.42) governs SST anomaly transport and dissipation. Since (9.42) is identical to (6.1) and (7.1), we can use the autoregressive and maximum likelihood estimators developed in chapters 6–8 for extracting SST anomaly advection, diffusion, feedback, and the atmospheric forcing from observations. We will focus on the estimation of the velocity and diffusivity.