Estimating monthly-averaged air-sea transfers of heat and momentum using the bulk aerodynamic method

• Main Authors: Reynolds, R. W., Esbensen, S. K.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1980
• Subjects: METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19800020489

Air-sea transfers of sensible heat, latent heat, and momentum are computed from twenty-five years of middle-latitude and subtropical ocean weather ship data in the North Atlantic and North Pacific using the bulk aerodynamic method. The results show that monthly-averaged wind speeds, temperatures, and humidities can be used to estimate the monthly-averaged sensible and latent heat fluxes computed from the bulk aerodynamic equations to within a relative error of approximately 10%. The estimate of monthly-averaged wind stress under the assumption of neutral stability are shown to be within approximately 5% of the monthly-averaged non-neutral values.