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Air-Sea Fluxes of Heat, Freshwater and Momentum

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Operational Oceanography in the 21st Century

Abstract

An overview of the air-sea fluxes of heat, freshwater and momentum is presented with the emphasis being on methods used to determine these fluxes and the role they play within the wider climate system. The equations used to determine the various heat flux components and the wind stress (which is equivalent to the momentum flux) are described in detail, together with the main spatial characteristics of the resulting global fields. This is followed by an overview of currently available flux datasets, including in situ, remotely sensed, atmospheric reanalysis and hybrid products. Methods for evaluation of these datasets are explored, including recent developments in the use of air-sea flux reference sites to discriminate between the different fields. Several topics that place surface fluxes in the context of global climate are then discussed including the ocean heat budget closure problem, climate change related trends in surface fluxes and impacts of extreme heat fluxes at high latitudes. Finally, some outstanding challenges are presented including the need for a better understanding of ocean-atmosphere interaction in the Southern Ocean and the potential for use of the integrated surface density flux to estimate variability in the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.

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Acknowledgements

The research summarised here is the result of efforts by a very broad community and I would like to thank the many people with whom I’ve discussed ocean-atmosphere interaction over the years. In particular, I would like to express my gratitude to Peter Taylor for guiding my thinking through much of my research career and to the UK Natural Environment Research Council for funding much of my research activity. In addition, I am grateful for many helpful comments on the manuscript by the anonymous reviewer and by members of the GODAE Summer School, in particular Cynthia Bluteau and Stephanie Downes.

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  1. National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK

    Simon A. Josey

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  1. Simon A. Josey
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Correspondence to Simon A. Josey .

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  1. Centre for Australian Weather &, Climate Research, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Andreas Schiller

  2. Centre for Australian Weather &, Climate Research, Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Gary B. Brassington

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Josey, S.A. (2011). Air-Sea Fluxes of Heat, Freshwater and Momentum. In: Schiller, A., Brassington, G. (eds) Operational Oceanography in the 21st Century. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0332-2_6

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