Impact of wind speed and atmospheric stability on air–sea interface fluxes over the East Asian Marginal Seas

• Published in: Atmospheric research 2009-09, Vol.94 (1), p.81-90
• Main Authors: Subrahamanyam, D. Bala, Rani, S. Indira, Ramachandran, Radhika, Kunhikrishnan, P.K., Kumar, B. Prasad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air–sea interaction processes; Atmospheric stability; Earth, ocean, space; East Asian Marginal Seas; Exact sciences and technology; External geophysics; Marine; Meteorology; Ocean observations; Oceanic buoys
• ISSN: 0169-8095; 1873-2895
• DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2008.09.011

Accurate estimation of surface layer turbulent fluxes of momentum, heat and moisture over the oceanic surface is crucial in determination of the atmospheric boundary layer dynamics over the region of interest. In this research article, we make use of an iterative bulk aerodynamic algorithm in conjunction with five oceanic buoys data for the determination of air–sea interface fluxes over the East Asian Marginal Seas. Our estimates of Sensible and Latent Heat Flux are in good agreement with the existing climatology and a correlation of about 0.90 is obtained between the two. On an average, our estimates of Sensible Heat Flux are over-estimated by a magnitude of about 5.39 Wm − 2 while the Latent Heat Flux estimates are under-estimated by a magnitude of about 12.05 Wm − 2 . Based on the iterative bulk aerodynamic algorithm we attempt to study the wind speed and atmospheric stability dependence of these fluxes over the study domain. The impact of wind speeds on the Sensible and Latent Heat Flux yields a correlation of about 0.52 and 0.62 respectively, whereas the flux magnitudes seem to have a larger impact of the atmospheric stability, where we obtain a correlation of about 0.75 to 0.90 with respect to the difference in Sea Surface Temperature and Air Temperature. Irrespective of the atmospheric stability conditions, the momentum flux has got large wind speed dependence with a high correlation of about 0.93. The results presented in this article are quite significant in itself and can serve as crucial inputs to the oceanic wave simulations over the study domain.