Decadal change and variability of Ocean Surface Heat, Freshwater, and Momentum Fluxes Revealed from Satellite-based High-resolution Analysis

Satellite-based high-resolution analysis (1987 onward) of global ocean turbulent heat, moisture, and momentum fluxes has been recently developed by the WHOI Objectively Analyzed air-sea (OAFlux) project. The datasets encompass the two climatically important periods: the decade of the 1990s that features a rapid rise of global temperatures and the decade of the 2000s that features a hiatus in global warming. The consistency across the three sets of ocean-surface fluxes and the high-resolution analysis allow a close examination of the decadal characteristic changes in the air-sea coupling and exchange processes, and allow an improved estimation of the long-term change and variability in ocean surface forcing function. One distinct characteristic is that the changes in the forcing are not distributed uniformly in space, although the global mean averages may stay near steady over the hiatus period. In particular, the changes of surface forcing are most pronounced in the tropical ocean and also in the North Atlantic. In this study, we will provide detailed characterization of the pattern of change in surface heat and freshwater budgets during the two contrasting decades. We will analyze their association with the change of near-surface atmospheric circulation, and with the atmospheric-ocean feedback processes.