# Non-closure of heat budget in ACCESS-CM2 ESMF/CMIP output

**URL:** <https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/non-closure-of-heat-budget-in-access-cm2-esmf-cmip-output/244>\
**Category:** Coupled Model\
**Tags:** model-evaluation, access-cm2, budget\
**Created:** [6 December 2022 05:13 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/non-closure-of-heat-budget-in-access-cm2-esmf-cmip-output/244 "2022-12-06T05:13:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![rmholmes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/rmholmes/32/117_2.png) [@rmholmes](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/rmholmes)\
**Post date:** [6 December 2022 05:26 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/non-closure-of-heat-budget-in-access-cm2-esmf-cmip-output/244/2 "2022-12-06T05:26:50Z")

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Thanks @taimoorsohail.

Just to clarify for others - the problem is with the pre-processing that computes the ESMF/CMIP output variable hfds from the raw MOM5 output diagnostics. The old calculation (“abhi-hfds” above) did not include frazil formation below the surface layer (frazil-2d vs. frazil-3d) or some components of the heat flux associated with surface volume fluxes (a few terms to do with ice-ocean fluxes). The “ryan-hfds” calculation above correctly includes all of these terms.

Technical note: To close the heat budget exactly you should technically also be comparing the time integral of area-integrated hfds to _snapshots_ of the global OHC, not _time-averages_ of OHC. This point is minor compared to the difference that Taimoor is showing above in the first plot, as shown by the second plot.

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