Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

TropFlux: air-sea fluxes for the global tropical oceans—description and evaluation

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate several timely, daily air-sea heat flux products (NCEP, NCEP2, ERA-Interim and OAFlux/ISCCP) against observations and present the newly developed TropFlux product. This new product uses bias-corrected ERA-interim and ISCCP data as input parameters to compute air-sea fluxes from the COARE v3.0 algorithm. Wind speed is corrected for mesoscale gustiness. Surface net shortwave radiation is based on corrected ISCCP data. We extend the shortwave radiation time series by using “near real-time” SWR estimated from outgoing longwave radiation. All products reproduce consistent intraseasonal surface net heat flux variations associated with the Madden-Julian Oscillation in the Indian Ocean, but display more disparate interannual heat flux variations associated with El Niño in the eastern Pacific. They also exhibit marked differences in mean values and seasonal cycle. Comparison with global tropical moored buoy array data, I-COADS and fully independent mooring data sets shows that the two NCEP products display lowest correlation to mooring turbulent fluxes and significant biases. ERA-interim data captures well temporal variability, but with significant biases. OAFlux and TropFlux perform best. All products have issues in reproducing observed longwave radiation. Shortwave flux is much better captured by ISCCP data than by any of the re-analyses. Our “near real-time” shortwave radiation performs better than most re-analyses, but tends to underestimate variability over the cold tongues of the Atlantic and Pacific. Compared to independent mooring data, NCEP and NCEP2 net heat fluxes display ~0.78 correlation and >65 W m−2 rms-difference, ERA-I performs better (~0.86 correlation and ~48 W m−2) while OAFlux and TropFlux perform best (~0.9 correlation and ~43 W m−2). TropFlux hence provides a useful option for studying flux variability associated with ocean–atmosphere interactions, oceanic heat budgets and climate fluctuations in the tropics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15
Fig. 16

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson A, Bakan S, Fennig K, Grassl H, Kleep C-P, Schlz J (2007) Hamburg ocean atmosphere parameters and fluxes from satellite data—HOAPS-3, electronic publication, world data centre for climate. doi:10.1594/WDCC/HOAPS3_MOMTHLY

  • Bentamy A, Katsaros KB, Mestas-Nuñez A, Drennan W, Forde E, Roquest H (2003) Satellite estimates of wind speed and latent heat flux over the global oceans. J Clim 16:637–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berry DI, Kent EC (2009) A new air-sea interaction gridded dataset from ICOADS with uncertainty estimates. Bull Am Meteor Soc 90:645–656

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bignami F, Marullo S, Santoleri R, Schiano ME (1995) Longwave radiation budget in the Mediterranean Sea. J Geophys Res 100(C2):2501–2514

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bjerknes J (1966) A possible response of the atmospheric Hadley circulation to equatorial anomalies of ocean temperature. Tellus 18:820–829

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolton D (1980) The computation of equivalent potential temperature. Mon Wea Rev 108:1046–1055

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourassa MA, Vincent DG, Wood WL (1999) A flux parameterization including the effects of capillary waves and sea state. J Atmos Sci 56:1123–1139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourlès B, Lumpkin R, McPhaden MJ, Hernandez F, Nobre P, Campos E, Yu L, Planton S, Busalacchi AJ, Moura AD, Servaom J, Trotte J (2008) The PIRATA program: history, accomplishments and future directions. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 89:1111–1125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley EF, Fairall CW, Hare JE, Grachev AA (2000) An old and improved bulk algorithm for air-sea fluxes: COARE2.6a. AMS 14th symposium on bounday layers and turbulence. Aspen, Colorado

  • Brink NJ, Moyer KA, Trask RP, Weller RA (1995) The subduction experiment: mooring field program and data summary. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. WHOI-95-08, p 113

  • Brunke MA, Zeng X, Anderson S (2002) Unceertainties in sea surface turbulent flux algorithms and data sets. J Geophys Res 107:3141. doi:10.1029/2001JC000992

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brunke MA, Fairall CW, Zeng X (2003) Which bulk aerodybamic algorithms are least problematic in computing ocean surface turbulent fluxes? J Clim 16:619–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budyko MI (1963) Atlas of the heat balance of the earth. Kartfabrika Gosgeoltenizdata, Leningrad

    Google Scholar 

  • Bunker AF (1976) Computations of surface energy flux and annual air-sea interaction cycles of the north Atlantic. Mon Wea Rev 104:1122–1140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bunker AF, Worthington LV (1976) Energy exchange charts of the North Atlantic Ocean. Bull Am Meteor Soc 57:670–678

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassou C (2008) Intraseasonal interaction between the Madden–Julian Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation. Nature 455:523–527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiang JCH, Vimont DJ (2004) Analogues Pacific and Atlantic Meridional modes of tropical atmosphere-ocean variability. J Clim 18:403–420

    Google Scholar 

  • Chou SH, Nelkin E, Ardissone J, Atlas RM (2004) A comparison of latent heat fluxes over global oceans for four flux products. J Clim 17:3973–3989

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark NE, Eber L, Laurs RM, Renner JA, Saur JFT (1974) Heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere in the eastern North Pacific for 1961–1971. NOAA Tech. Rep. NMRS SSRF-682, p 108

  • Clayson CA, Curry JA (1996) Determination of surface turbulent fluxes for TOGA COARE: comparison of satellite retrievals and in situ measurements. J Geophys Res 101:28503–28513

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colbo K, Weller R (2007) The variability and heat budget of the upper ocean under the Chile-Peru stratus. J Mar Res 65:607–637

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornillon P, Park K-A (2001) Warm core ring velocity inferred from NSCAT. Geophys Res Lett 28:575–578

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MF, Fairall C, McPhaden MJ (2006a) An assessment of buoy-derived and numerical weather prediction surface heat fluxes in the tropical Pacific. J Geophys Res 111:C06038. doi:10.1029/2005JC003324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cronin MF, Bond N, Fairall CW, Weller RA (2006b) Surface cloud focrcing in the East Pacific Stratus Deck/Cold Tongue/ITCZ complex. J Clim 19:392–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curry JA et al (2004) SEAFLUX. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 85:409–424

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dee DP, Uppala S (2009) Variational bias correction of satellite radiance data in ERA-interim reanalysis. Quart J R Meteorol Soc 135:1830–1841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duvel J-P, Vialard J (2007) Indo-Pacific sea surface temperature perturbations associated with intraseasonal oscillations of the tropical convection. J Clim 20:3056–3082

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elms JD, Woodruff SD, Worley SJ, Hanson C (1993) Digitizing historical records for the comprehensive ocean-atmosphere data set (COADS). Earth Syst Monit 4(2):4–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Esbensen SK, McPhaden MJ (1996) Enhancement of tropical ocean evaporation and sensible heat flux by atmospheric mesoscale systems. J Clim 9:2307–2325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairall CW, Bradley EF, Rogers DP, Edson JB, Young GS (1996) Bulk parameterization of air-sea fluxes for tropical ocean-global atmosphere coupled ocean-atmosphere response experiment. J Geophys Res 101:3747–3764

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairall CW, Bradley Ef, Hare JE, Grachev AA, Edson JB (2003) Bulk parameterization on air-sea fluxes: updates and verification for the COARE algorithm. J Clim 16:571–591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foltz GR, McPhaden MJ (2005) Mixed layer heat balance on intraseasonal time scales in the northwestern tropical Atlantic Ocean. J Clim 18:4168–4184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foltz GR, Vialard J, Praveen Kumar B, McPhaden MJ (2010) Seasonal mixed layer heat balance of the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean. J Clim 23:947–965

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freitag HP, McCarty ME, Nosse C, Lukas R, McPhaden MJ, Cronin MF (1999) COARE seacat data: calibrations and quality control procedures. NOAA Tech. Memo. ERL PMEL-115, p 89

  • Freitag HP, O’Haleck M, Thomas GC, McPhaden MJ (2001) Calibration procedures and instumental accuracies for ATLAS wind measurements. NOAA. Tech. Memo. OAR PMEL-119, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, p 20

  • Grassl H, Jost V, Kumar R, Schulz J, Bauer P, Schluessel P (2000) The hamburg ocean atmosphere parameters and fluxes from satellite data (HOAPS): a climatological atlas of satellite derived air-sea interaction parameters over the oceans. Report No 312, ISSN 0937-1060, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg

  • Hendon HH (2003) Indonesian rainfall variability: impacts of ENSO and local air-sea interaction. J Clim 16:1775–1790

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jayakumar A, Vialard J, Lengaigne M, Gnanaseelan C, McCreary JP, Praveen Kumar B (2010) Processes controlling the surface temperature signature of the Madden-Julian oscillation in the thermocline ridge of the Indian Ocean. Clim Dyn (online). doi:10.1007/s00382-010-0953-5

  • Jiang C, Cronin MF, Kelly KA, Thompson L (2005) Evaluation of a hybrid satellite- and NWP-based turbulent heat flux product using tropical atmosphere-ocean (TAO) buoys. J Geophys Res 110(C9):C09007. doi:10.1029/2004JC002824

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josey SA, Oakely D, Pascal RW (1997) On estimating the atmospheric longwave flux at the ocean surface from ship meteorological reports. J Geophys Res 102:27961–27972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josey SA, Kent EC, Taylor PK (1999) New insights into the ocean heat budget closure problem from analysis of the SOC air-sea flux climatology. J Clim 12:2856–2880

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josey SA, Pascal RW, Taylor PK, Yelland MJ (2003) A new formula for determining the atmospheric longwave flux at the ocean surface at mid-high latitudes. J Geophys Res 108(C4):3108. doi:10.1029/2002JC001418

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay E et al (1996) The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull Am Meteor Soc 77:437–470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanamitsu M, Ebisuzaki W, Woolen J, Potter J, Fiorino M (2002) NCEP/DOE AMIP-II reanalysis (R-2). Bull Am Met Soc 83:1631–1643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly KA, Dickinson S, McPhaden MJ, Johnson GC (2001) Ocean currents evident in satellite wind data. Geophys Res Lett 28:2469–2472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein SA, Soden BJ, Lau N-C (1999) Remote sea surface temperature variations during ENSO: evidence for a tropical atmospheric bridge. J Clim 12:917–932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubota M, Iwasala N, Kizu S, Knoda M (2002) Japanese ocean flux data sets with use of remote sensing observations (J-OFURO). J Oceanogr 58:213–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kummerow C, Barnes W, Kozu T, Shiue J, Simpson J (1998) The tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM) sensor package. J Atmos Ocean Technol 15:809–816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lake BJ, Norr SM, Freitag HP, McPhaden MJ (2003) Calibration procedures and intrumental accuracy estimates of ATLAS air temperature and relative humidity measurements. NOAA Tech Memo. OAR PMEL-123, NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, p 23

  • Liebmann B, Smith CA (1996) Description of a complete (interpolated) outgoing longwave radiation dataset. Bull Am Meteor Soc 77:1275–1277

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden RA, Julian PR (1972) Description of global-scale circulation cells in the tropics with a 40–50 days period. J Atmos Sci 29:3138–3158

    Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Busalacchi AJ, Cheney R, Donguy JR, Gage KS, Halpern D, Ji M, Julian P, Mayers G, Mitchum GT, Niiler PP, Picaut J, Reynolds RW, Smith N, Takeuchi K (1998) The tropical ocean-global atmosphere (TOGA) observing system: a decade of progress. J Geophys Res 103:14169–14240

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Zebiak SE, Glantz MH (2006) ENSO as an integrating concept in earth science. Science 314:1740–1745

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Meyers G, Ando K, Masumoto Y, Murty VSN, Ravichandran M, Syamsudin F, Vialard J, Yu W, Wu L (2009) RAMA: research moored array for African-Asian-Australian monsoon analysis and prediction. Bull Am Met Soc 90:459–480

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McPhaden MJ, Ando K, Bourlès B, Freitag HP, Lumpkin R, Masumoto Y, Murty VSN, Nobre P, Ravichandran M, Vialard J, Vousden D, Yu W (2010) The global tropical moored buoy array. In: Hall J, Harrison DE, Stammer D (eds) Proceedings of the “OceanObs’09: Sustained Ocean Observations and Information for Society” conference, vol 2, Venice, Italy, 21–25 Sep 2009, ESA Publication WPP-306

  • Mears CA, Smith DK, Wentz FJ (2001) Comparison of special sensor microwave imager and buoy-measured wind speeds from 1987 to 1997. J Geophys Res 106:11719–11729

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Medavaya M, Waliser DE, Weller RA, McPhaden MJ (2002) Assessing ocean buoy shortwave shortwave observations using clear-sky model calculations. J Geophys Res 107(C2):3014. doi:10.1029/2000JC000558

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murtugudde R, McCreary JP, Busalacchi AJ (2000) Oceanic processes associated with anomalous events in the Indian Ocean with relevance to 1997–1998. J Geophys Res 105:3295–3306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parekh A, Sharma R, Sarkar A (2007) A comparative assessment of sea wind speed and sea surface temperature over the Indian Ocean by TMI, MSMR, and ERA-40. J Atmos Ocean Technol 24:1131–1142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Payne RE, Huang K, Weller RA, Freitag HP, Cronin MF, McPhaden MJ, Meinig C, Kuroda Y, Ushijima N, Reynolds RM (2002) A comparison of buoy meteorological systems. WHOI Technical Report WHOI-2002-10. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, p 67

  • Perry AH, Walker JM (1977) The ocean-atmosphere system. Longman Inc, New York, p 160

    Google Scholar 

  • Plueddemann AJ, Weller RA, Lukas R, Lord J, Bouchard PR, Walsh MA (2006) WHOI Hawaii ocean timeseries station (WHOTS): WJOTS-2 Mooring Turnaround Cruise Report. Woods Hole Oceanogr. Inst. Tech. Rep., WHOI-2006-08, p 68

  • Redelsperger JL, Guichard F, Mondon S (2000) A parameterization of mesoscale enhancement of surface fluxes for large scale models. J Clim 5:402–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reed R (1977) On estimating insolation over the ocean. J Phys Oceanogr 7:482–485

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saji NH, Goswami BN, Vinayachandran PN, Yamagata T (1999) A dipole mode in the tropical Indian Ocean. Nature 401:360–363

    Google Scholar 

  • Schulz J, Bakan S (1998) A new satellite-derived freshwater flux climatology (Hamburg Ocean atmosphere parameters and fluxes from satellite data). Int WOCE Newsl 32:20–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta D, Ravichandran M (2001) Oscillations of Bay of Bengal sea surface temperature during the 1998 summer monsoon. Geophys Res Lett 28:2033–2036

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sengupta D, Goswami BN, Senan R (2001) Coherent intraseasonal oscillations of ocean and atmosphere during the Asian summer monsoon. Geopys Res Lett 28:4127–4130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shinoda T, Hendon HH (1998) Mixed layer modeling of intraseasonal variability in the tropical western Pacific and Indian Oceans. J Clim 11:2668–2685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shinoda T, Hendon HH, Glick J (1998) Intraseasonal variability of surface fluxes and sea surface temperature in the tropical western Pacific and Indian Ocean. J Clim 11:1685–1702

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith SD (1988) Coefficients for sea surface wind stress, heat flux and wind profiles as a function of wind speed and temperature. J Geophys Res 93:15467–15472

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sobel AH, Maloney ED, Bellon G, Frierson DM (2008) The role of surface fluxes in tropical intraseasonal oscillations. Nat Geosci 1:653–657

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uppala SM et al (2005) The ERA-40 re-analysis. Quart J R Meteorol Soc 131:2961–3012. doi:10.1256/qj.04.176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vialard J, Menkes C, Boulanger J-P, Delecluse P, Guliyardi E, McPhaden MJ, Madec G (2001) A model study of oceanic mechanisms affecting equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature during the 1997–1998 El-Nino. J Phys Oceanogr 31:1649–1675

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vialard J, Foltz G, McPhaden M, Duvel J-P, de Boyer Montégut C (2008) Strong Indian Ocean sea surface temperature signals associated with the Madden-Julian oscillation in late 2007 and early 2008. Geophys Res Lett 35:L19608. doi:10.1029/2008GL035238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vialard J et al (2009) Cirene: air-sea interactions in the Seychelles-Chagos themocline ridge region. Bull Am Meteor Soc 90:45–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Vialard J, Jayakumar A, Gnanaseelan C, Lengaigne M, Sengupta D (2011) Processes of intraseasonal sea surface temperature variability in the Northern Indian Ocean during boreal summer. Clim Dyn (online). doi:10.1007/s00382-011-1015-3

  • Vimont DJ, Kossin JP (2007) The Atlantic meridional mode and hurricane activity. Geophys Res Lett 34:L07709. doi:10.1029/2007GL029683

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang W, McPhaden MJ (2000) The surface layer heat balance in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, part II: interannual variability. J Phys Oceanogr 30:2989–3008

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster P, Lukas R (1992) TOGA-COARE the coupled ocean-atmosphere response experiment. Bull Am Meteor 73:1377–1416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster PJ, Moore AM, Loschnigg JP, Leben RR (1999) Coupled oceanic atmospheric dynamics in the Indian Ocean during 1997–98. Nature 401:356–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weissman DE, Bourassa MA, Tongue J (2002) Effects of rain rate and wind magnitude on SeaWinds scatterometer wind speed errors. J Atmos Ocean Technol 19:738–746

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weller RA, Baumgartner MF, Josey SA, Fischer AS, Kindle J (1998) Atmospheric forcing in the Arabian Sea during 1994–1995: observations and comparisons with climatology and models. Deep-Sea Res 45:1961–1999

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whelan SP, Weller RA, Lukas R, Bradley F, Lord J, Smith J, Bahr F, Lethaby P, Snyder J (2007) WHOTS-3 mooring turnaround cruise report. Woods Hole Oceanogr. Inst. Tech. Rep., WHOI-2007-03, pp 1–3

  • Woodruff SD, Lubker SJ, Wolter K, Worley SJ, Elms JD (1993) Comprehensive ocean-atmosphere data set (COADS) release la:1980–1992. Earth Syst Monit 4:4–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodruff SD, Worley SJ, Lubker SJ, Ji Z, Freeman JE, Berry DI, Brohan P, Kent EC, Reynolds RW, Smith SR, Wilkinson C (2010) ICOADS Release 2.5: extensions and enhancements to the surface marine meteorological archive. Int J Clim. doi:10.1002/joc.2103

  • Xie S-P, Carton JA (2004) Tropical Atlantic variability: patterns, mechanisms, and impacts. In: Wang C, Xie S-P, Carton JA (eds) Earth’s climate: the ocean-atmosphere interacion, geophys. Monogr. Ser, vol 147. AGU, Washington, pp 121–142

  • Xie S-P, Philander SGH (1994) A coupled ocean-atmosphere model of relevance to the ITCZ in the eastern Pacific. Tellus Ser A 46:340–350

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu L, Weller RA (2007) Objectively analyzed air-sea heat fluxes (OAFlux) for the global oceans. Bull Am Meteor Soc 88:527–539

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu LS, Weller RA, Sun B (2004a) Improving latent and sensible heat flux estimates for the Atlantic Ocean (1988–1999) by a synthesis approach. J Clim 17:373–393

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu LS, Weller RA, Sun B (2004b) Mean and variability of the WHOI daily latent and sensible heat fluxes at in situ flux measurement sites in the Atlantic Ocean. J Clim 17:2096–2118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu L, Jin X, Weller RA (2006) Role of net surface heaet flux in the seasonal evolution of sea surface temperature in the Atlantic Ocean. J Clim 19:6153–6169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu L, Jin X, Weller RA (2007) Annual, seasonal, and interannual variability of air sea heat fluxes in the Indian Ocean. J Clim 20:3190–3209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng X, Zhao M, Dickinson RE (1998) Intercomparison of bulk aerodynamic algorithms for the computation of se surface fluxes using the TOGA COARE and TAO data. J Clim 11:2628–2644

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng X, Zhang Q, Johnson D, Tao W-K (2002) Parameterization of wind gustiness for the computation of ocean surface fluxes at different spatal scales. Mon Weather Rev 130:2125–2133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang YC, Rossow WB, Lacis AA, Oinas V, Mishchenko MI (2004) Calculation of radiative fluxes from the surface to top of atmosphere based on ISCCP and other global data sets: refinments of the radiative transfer model and the input data. J Geophys Res 109:D19105. doi:10.1029/2003JD004457

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang C, Dong M, Gualdi S, Hendon HH, Maloney ED, Marshall A, Sperber KR, Wang W (2006) Simulations of the Madden–Julian oscillation in four pairs of coupled and uncoupled global models. Clim Dyn 27:573–592

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The development of TropFlux product is the result of a joint research collaboration between National Institute of Oceanography (Goa, India) and Institute Pierre et Simon Laplace (Paris, France). BPK and VSNM thanks Director, National Institute of Oceanography, India, for his keen interest in this study. The lead author is supported by a Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, Govt. of India) and a 1-year research grant from Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, France) and did part of this work whilst at Laboratoire d’Océanographie Expérimentation et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN, Paris). JV and ML are funded by Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and did this work while visiting National Institute of Oceanography (NIO, India). We sincerely thank the providers of NCEP, NCEP2 re-analyses and OLR data (NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA), ERA-Interim (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting), OAFlux (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), ISCCP (International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project), TMI SST (Remote Sensing Systems), Qscat winds (CERSAT-IFREMER), ICOADS (NOAA, USA), TAO-PIRATA-RAMA (PMEL-NOAA) and the OceanSites initiative for various data sets. Meghan Cronin and Dai McClurg (PMEL) provided TPR climatological wind gustiness data. Discussions with Jean-Luc Redelsperger on wind gustiness parameterization provided useful inputs. Constructive comments by two anonymous reviewers greatly helped to improve an earlier version of this manuscript. This is NIO contribution number 4981 and PMEL contribution number 3628.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physical Oceanography Division, National Institute of Oceanography, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dona Paula, Goa, 403004, India

    B. Praveen Kumar, J. Vialard & M. Lengaigne

  2. Laboratoire d’Océanographie Expérimentation et Approches Numériques, CNRS, UPMC, IRD, Paris, France

    J. Vialard & M. Lengaigne

  3. National Institute of Oceanography Regional Centre, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Visakhapatnam, India

    V. S. N. Murty

  4. NOAA/Pacific Marine Research Laboratory, Seattle, WA, USA

    M. J. McPhaden

Authors
  1. B. Praveen Kumar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. J. Vialard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Lengaigne
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. V. S. N. Murty
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. J. McPhaden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to B. Praveen Kumar.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Praveen Kumar, B., Vialard, J., Lengaigne, M. et al. TropFlux: air-sea fluxes for the global tropical oceans—description and evaluation. Clim Dyn 38, 1521–1543 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1115-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1115-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation