Impact of biological feedback on heat fluxes and sea surface temperature in global and regional ocean models

Ocean models require parameterization of the penetrative length scales of shortwave irradiance into the surface ocean. Surface ocean biology may modulate this length scale on a variety of space-time scales and this variability may, in turn, impact numerical model forecasts of surface ocean temperatures and ocean-atmosphere heat exchange. We present results from both global and regional ocean forecasting systems evaluating the sensitivity of the systems to various representations of surface ocean bio-optical variability. Global numerical experiments with the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) demonstrate secondary circulation effects due to bio-optical variability in surface waters. Regional-scale two-way coupled ocean atmosphere systems further indicate a significant impact on turbulent thermal energy exchanges when coastal phytoplankton blooms are represented in the modeling system.