The mass transport in the shallow, wind-driven, overturning cells in the tr
opical oceans is constrained to be close to the mass transport in the atmos
pheric Hadley cell, assuming that zonally integrated wind stresses on land
are relatively small. Therefore, the ratio of the poleward energy transport
in low latitudes in the two media is determined by the ratio of the atmosp
heric gross static stability to that of the ocean. A qualitative discussion
of the gross stability of each medium suggests that the resulting ratio of
oceanic to atmospheric energy transport, averaged over the Hadley cell, is
roughly equal to the ratio of the heat capacity of water to that of air at
constant pressure, multiplied by the ratio of the moist- to the dry-adiaba
tic lapse rates near the surface. The ratio of oceanic to atmospheric energ
y transport should be larger than this value near the equator and smaller t
han this value near the poleward boundary of the Hadley cell.