First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean
polar region from the subtropics, transferring climate signals throughout the world's oceans and forming the southern component of the global overturning circulation. However, the air-sea fluxes that drive these processes are severely under-observed due to the harsh and remote location. This pa...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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2012
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Online Access: | https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344372/ |
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ftsouthampton:oai:eprints.soton.ac.uk:344372 2023-07-30T04:06:59+02:00 First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean Schulz, E.W. Josey, S.A. Verein, R. 2012 https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344372/ unknown Schulz, E.W., Josey, S.A. and Verein, R. (2012) First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (16), L16606. (doi:10.1029/2012GL052290 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052290>). Article PeerReviewed 2012 ftsouthampton https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052290 2023-07-09T21:41:56Z polar region from the subtropics, transferring climate signals throughout the world's oceans and forming the southern component of the global overturning circulation. However, the air-sea fluxes that drive these processes are severely under-observed due to the harsh and remote location. This paucity of reference observations has resulted in large uncertainties in ship-based, numerical weather prediction, satellite and derived flux products. Here, we report observations from the Southern Ocean Flux Station (SOFS); the first successful air-sea flux mooring deployment in this ocean. The mooring was deployed at 47°S, 142°E for March 2010 to March 2011 and returned measurements of near surface meteorological variables and radiative components of the heat exchange. These observations enable the first accurate quantification of the annual cycle of net air-sea heat exchange and wind stress from a Southern Ocean location. They reveal a high degree of variability in the net heat flux with extreme turbulent heat loss events, reaching ?470 Wm?2 in the daily mean, associated with cold air flowing from higher southern latitudes. The observed annual mean net air-sea heat flux is a small net ocean heat loss of ?10 Wm?2, with seasonal extrema of 139 Wm?2 in January and ?79 Wm?2 in July. The novel observations made with the SOFS mooring provide a key point of reference for addressing the high level of uncertainty that currently exists in Southern Ocean air-sea flux datasets. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton Southern Ocean Geophysical Research Letters 39 16 n/a n/a |
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Open Polar |
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University of Southampton: e-Prints Soton |
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ftsouthampton |
language |
unknown |
description |
polar region from the subtropics, transferring climate signals throughout the world's oceans and forming the southern component of the global overturning circulation. However, the air-sea fluxes that drive these processes are severely under-observed due to the harsh and remote location. This paucity of reference observations has resulted in large uncertainties in ship-based, numerical weather prediction, satellite and derived flux products. Here, we report observations from the Southern Ocean Flux Station (SOFS); the first successful air-sea flux mooring deployment in this ocean. The mooring was deployed at 47°S, 142°E for March 2010 to March 2011 and returned measurements of near surface meteorological variables and radiative components of the heat exchange. These observations enable the first accurate quantification of the annual cycle of net air-sea heat exchange and wind stress from a Southern Ocean location. They reveal a high degree of variability in the net heat flux with extreme turbulent heat loss events, reaching ?470 Wm?2 in the daily mean, associated with cold air flowing from higher southern latitudes. The observed annual mean net air-sea heat flux is a small net ocean heat loss of ?10 Wm?2, with seasonal extrema of 139 Wm?2 in January and ?79 Wm?2 in July. The novel observations made with the SOFS mooring provide a key point of reference for addressing the high level of uncertainty that currently exists in Southern Ocean air-sea flux datasets. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Schulz, E.W. Josey, S.A. Verein, R. |
spellingShingle |
Schulz, E.W. Josey, S.A. Verein, R. First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
author_facet |
Schulz, E.W. Josey, S.A. Verein, R. |
author_sort |
Schulz, E.W. |
title |
First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
title_short |
First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
title_full |
First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
title_fullStr |
First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
title_full_unstemmed |
First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean |
title_sort |
first air-sea flux mooring measurements in the southern ocean |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/344372/ |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
Schulz, E.W., Josey, S.A. and Verein, R. (2012) First air-sea flux mooring measurements in the Southern Ocean. Geophysical Research Letters, 39 (16), L16606. (doi:10.1029/2012GL052290 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052290>). |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052290 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
39 |
container_issue |
16 |
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n/a |
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n/a |
_version_ |
1772820040669724672 |