436
Analysis of air-sea interactions in the NASA MERRA product
J. Brent Roberts, NASA/MSFC, Huntsville, AL; and F. R. Robertson, C. A. Clayson, and M. G. Bosilovich
Interactions between the ocean and atmosphere influence the global energy and water balance through the exchange of heat, moisture and momentum. These interactions occur over a wide range of space and time scales and need to be properly represented in climate and reanalysis simulations. This study focuses on the representation of the turbulent latent and sensible heat fluxes in the newly developed NASA Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA). It is shown that MERRA achieves realistic estimates of the turbulent fluxes for many space and time scales although some deficiencies are noted. Comparisons are made at high resolution temporal scales with measurements from several research vessels while long term comparisons are made with moored buoys. These results are contrasted with those from several other currently available reanalysis and satellite based products. The representation of feedbacks between the atmosphere and ocean are also examined through the use of simultaneous and lagged correlation analyses with particular focus on precipitation and sea surface temperature relationships. Together, these results demonstrate the consistency of the NASA MERRA product and its applicability for process studies across wide ranging scales of variability.
Poster Session , Surface-Atmosphere Interactions
Thursday, 21 January 2010, 9:45 AM-11:00 AM
Previous paper Next paper