Exchange coefficients and air-sea interaction in tropical cyclones

Numerical ocean simulations with intense tropical cyclone forcing are employed to investigate the effect of various representations of air-sea interaction processes on the surface and sub-surface ocean. Both one-dimensional and three-dimensional models are used to study the ocean response which is compared to both ocean reanalyses and satellite observations. We discuss differences found between the 1-D and 3-D ocean responses, as well as between simulations using different parameterizations of surface fluxes. From comparison with available ocean observations, we identify the parameterisation of air-sea interaction processes at extreme wind speeds that provides the most realistic ocean simulations.