HR: 1340h
AN: OS13A-1015    [Abstracts]
TI: Regional Comparison of Surface Turbulent Flux Products
AU: * Hughes, P J
EM: phughes@met.fsu.edu
AF: COAPS, Florida State University, 200 RM Johnson Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2840, United States
AU: Bourassa, M A
EM: bourassa@coaps.fsu.edu
AF: COAPS, Florida State University, 200 RM Johnson Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2840, United States
AU: Smith, S R
EM: smith@coaps.fsu.edu
AF: COAPS, Florida State University, 200 RM Johnson Bldg, Tallahassee, FL 32306-2840, United States
AB: The surface turbulent fluxes (sensible heat, latent heat, and stress) are an important mechanism by which the atmosphere interacts with the ocean. For example, the air-sea exchange of heat plays an important role in driving the large scale atmospheric circulation as well as regulating the sea surface temperature. Wind stress at the surface is an important driving force for ocean currents. Thus, accurate global fields of the turbulent fluxes are crucial to the understanding of ocean/atmosphere variability. This study compares the surface turbulent fluxes from nine products and investigates the differences on both basin-wide and regional scales over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The forcing variables are also examined to identify causes for differences in the derived flux products. The products based on weather models include the 2nd NCEP reanalysis, ECMWF 40-yr reanalysis (ERA-40), and Japanese 25-yr reanalysis (JRA-25). Data sets based on in situ observations include NOC (formerly SOC) and FSU3. Purely satellite derived products include those from Goddard (GSSTF2), IFREMER, and the 2nd version of HOAPS. A hybrid NWP model and satellite product from WHOI is also included in this comparison. Zonal averages of the stresses and heat fluxes reveal very large differences amongst the various products. For the Atlantic Ocean, the largest differences in the zonally averaged latent and sensible heat fluxes exceed 60 Wm-2 and 15 Wm-2 respectively. Comparable differences are also found over the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These differences are large from the point of view of climate modeling. Regional analysis of the distribution of the fluxes shows large variations between products at all quantiles. For example, NCEPR2 has a large inter-quantile range and unrealistic values at the 1st and 99th percentile in the tropics. In some regions, median latent heat flux values differ by 40 Wm-2 between products.
DE: 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting