In this talk I will
introduce our research about the ability of using
remote sensed ocean color data to parameterize biogenic heating in a
hybrid coupled ocean-atmosphere model recently developed at
ESSIC/University of Maryland. I will focus on the impact of accounting
for the seasonal cycle of the penetration of solar radiation in such
a model. Our results show that accounting for a realistic distribution
of
the penetration of solar radiation impacts the biases of the model and
the seasonal cycle, reducing the errors of SST, thermocline depth, and
the Southern Equatorial Current. The seasonal cycle of the attenuation
depth leads to a significant improvement of the interannual variability
of the SST.