gsw_alpha

thermal expansion coefficient with respect to 
Conservative Temperature. (48-term equation)

Contents

USAGE:

alpha = gsw_alpha(SA,CT,p)

DESCRIPTION:

Calculates the thermal expansion coefficient of seawater with respect to
Conservative Temperature using the computationally-efficient 48-term expression
for density in terms of SA, CT and p (McDougall et al., 2011).
Note that the 48-term equation has been fitted in a restricted range of 
parameter space, and is most accurate inside the "oceanographic funnel" 
described in McDougall et al. (2011).  The GSW library function 
"gsw_infunnel(SA,CT,p)" is avaialble to be used if one wants to test if 
some of one's data lies outside this "funnel".
TEOS-10 
Click for a more detailed description of alpha with 
respect to Conservative Temperature.

INPUT:

SA  =  Absolute Salinity                                          [ g/kg ]
CT  =  Conservative Temperature (ITS-90)                         [ deg C ]
p   =  sea pressure                                               [ dbar ]
       (ie. absolute pressure - 10.1325 dbar)
SA & CT need to have the same dimensions.
p may have dimensions 1x1 or Mx1 or 1xN or MxN, where SA & CT are MxN.

OUTPUT:

alpha  =  thermal expansion coefficient                            [ 1/K ]
          with respect to Conservative Temperature

EXAMPLE:

SA = [34.7118; 34.8915; 35.0256; 34.8472; 34.7366; 34.7324;]
CT = [28.7856; 28.4329; 22.8103; 10.2600;  6.8863;  4.4036;]
p =  [     10;      50;     125;     250;     600;    1000;]
alpha = gsw_alpha(SA,CT,p)
alpha =
1.0e-003 *
   0.324480399390879
   0.322623026070215
   0.281341259491397
   0.173481771204433
   0.146828379793380
   0.130191733440652

AUTHOR:

Paul Barker and Trevor McDougall                      [ help@teos-10.org ]

VERSION NUMBER:

3.01 (3rd May, 2011)

REFERENCES:

IOC, SCOR and IAPSO, 2010: The international thermodynamic equation of
 seawater - 2010: Calculation and use of thermodynamic properties.
 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, Manuals and Guides No. 56,
 UNESCO (English), 196 pp.  Available from the TEOS-10 web site.
  See Eqn. (2.18.3) of this TEOS-10 manual.
McDougall T.J., P.M. Barker, R. Feistel and D.R. Jackett, 2011:  A 
 computationally efficient 48-term expression for the density of 
 seawater in terms of Conservative Temperature, and related properties
 of seawater.  To be submitted to Ocean Science Discussions. 
The software is available from http://www.TEOS-10.org