This study examines the heat balance of the inner shelf along the US West Coast using 14 years of summer temperature and velocity observations in 15 m water depth. Previous work at this site found no year‐to‐year variability in the observed mean summer temperature change despite significant warming due to surface heat flux and variable cooling due to across‐shelf heat flux. Here, the processes that affect coastal water temperatures over time scales of days and months are investigated. Synoptic temperature variability (on time scales of several days) was predominantly due to the across‐shelf heat flux, as there was little synoptic variability in the surface heating and no evidence that an along‐shelf heat flux would close the two‐dimensional heat budget when the residual was large. The analyses suggest the across‐shelf heat flux was influenced by multiple mechanisms in addition to Ekman transport by along‐shelf winds. For example, there was a three‐layer vertical across‐shelf velocity structure 40% ± 10% of the time and during downwelling‐favorable winds there was an upwelling circulation 80% of the time. The across‐shelf heat flux was generally highest near the surface and bottom boundaries, where the velocity observations were most limited. The heat budget residual was positive most of the time, likely resulting from uncertainty due to the observational limitations. An improved understanding of the processes that control the across‐shelf heat flux and buffer temperature variability in the coastal ocean has the potential to improve predictions of coastal temperatures under climate change scenarios.

中文翻译：

---

俄勒冈州内架子两个夏季的夏季热量平衡：季节内变化

这项研究使用15年水深中14年夏季的温度和速度观测资料，研究了美国西海岸内陆架的热平衡。尽管由于地表热通量引起的显着变暖和跨架热通量引起的变冷，但该站点以前的工作并未发现观测到的夏季平均温度变化在逐年变化。在这里，研究了在几天和几个月的时间范围内影响沿海水温的过程。天气的温度变化（在几天的时间尺度上）主要是由于跨架的热通量，因为表面加热的天气变化几乎没有，而且没有证据表明沿架的热通量会关闭二维热量收支当残差很大时。分析表明，跨架热通量除了受沿架风的埃克曼输运外，还受多种机制的影响。例如，在40％±10％的时间内，存在一个三层垂直跨架速度结构，在下风向有利的风中，有80％的时间出现了上流环流。跨架热通量通常在速度和观测最有限的表面和底部边界附近最高。大多数时候，热量预算剩余为正，这可能是由于观测局限性导致的不确定性所致。更好地了解控制沿海海洋跨架热通量和缓冲区温度变化的过程，可能会改善气候变化情景下对沿海温度的预测。