Air-Sea Interaction Measurements from Aircraft in DYNAMO

Measurement and mapping of air-sea fluxes of latent heat, sensible heat and momentum were among the primary objectives of the aircraft component of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (DYNAMO) field experiment that was carried out from Nov 11 to Dec 13, 2011. To this end, the NOAA WP-3D N43RF aircraft was equipped with fast-response temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind instrumentation for turbulence measurements. Eddy correlation fluxes were obtained by calculation of covariances of the vertical wind component with the appropriate variables: humidity, potential temperature and horizontal wind components. In this presentation we will give a brief description of the measurements techniques and calibration procedures that were used. The discussion of the results from our analysis will focus on the comparison of air-sea fluxes results obtained during the suppressed phase versus those obtained during the active phase of the MJO which were both captured during the deployment.