Comparisons of Ship-based Observations of Air-Sea Energy Budgets with Gridded Flux Products

Abstract:

Air-surface interactions are characterized directly by the fluxes of momentum, heat, moisture, trace gases, and particles near the interface. In the last 20 years advances in observation technologies have greatly expanded the database of high-quality direct (covariance) turbulent flux and irradiance observations from research vessels. In this paper, we will summarize observations from the NOAA sea-going flux system from participation in various field programs executed since 1999 and discuss comparisons with several gridded flux products. We will focus on comparisons of turbulent heat fluxes and solar and IR radiative fluxes. The comparisons are done for observing programs in the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans and SE subtropical Pacific.