Abstract
The focus of this chapter is on unattended observations of surface meteorology made from surface buoys. Also discussed is the computation of the air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater, and momentum from the surface meteorological data obtained from surface buoys. The computation of these fluxes requires measurements of wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity, barometric pressure, incoming shortwave radiation, incoming longwave radiation, sea surface temperature and salinity, and surface currents. Progress has been made in recent years in developing low power, robust, and accurate instrumentation. The present state of the sensors and related hardware is summarized. Typical buoy installations are described, and a summary of where these observations have been made is presented. The accuracies of the observations of surface meteorology are discussed. These accuracies are used together with the bulk formulae and intercomparisons to estimate the uncertainties in the flux observations. In many cases, it is now possible to make measurements of the mean net air–sea heat flux to an accuracy of 8 W m−2. Challenges remain, and these challenges are also discussed.
For Observing the Oceans in Real Time – Instruments, Measurements and Experience
March 31, 2016
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Acknowledgments
Initial development of the ASIMET system was supported by the US National Science Foundation, Grant OCE-8709614. Subsequent support from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Program Office and from the US Office of Naval Research has lead to significant improvements. The work reported here, including the laboratory calibrations, deployments, recoveries, and analyses, was done by the Upper Ocean Processes Group of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; more about this group can be found at http://uop.whoi.edu. Over the years this work has benefited greatly from collaborations with Dr. Frank Bradley, CSIRO, Australia and Dr. Chris Fairall, NOAA ESRL, Boulder, CO.
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Weller, R.A. (2018). Observing Surface Meteorology and Air-Sea Fluxes. In: Venkatesan, R., Tandon, A., D'Asaro, E., Atmanand, M. (eds) Observing the Oceans in Real Time. Springer Oceanography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66493-4_2
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