Shipboard Measurements of Surface Flux and Near Surface Profiles and Surface Flux Parameterization

Abstract

The long-term goal of this project is to understand the effects of surface waves on the structure of the marine atmospheric surface layer and surface flux parameterizations under a broad range of wind-wave conditions. This project is part of the High Resolution Wave-Air-Sea Interaction research initiative (HiRes). The objectives of this project are to characterize low-level atmospheric wind and thermodynamic profiles and variations, to understand oceanic and atmospheric large scale forcing that affects boundary layer properties and the role of measured wave field in modifying atmospheric surface fluxes. Our work within this project consists of three parts: measurements, the subsequent data analyses, and mesoscale model evaluation/improvements. The ship-based (Sproul R/V) measurement efforts include high-rate sampling of the turbulent field for direct covariance flux measurements, continuous sampling of the low-level wind profiles by the ship-based acoustic Sodar, rawinsonde measurements of the troposphere, a suite of mean variables for quantifying the low-level thermodynamic and dynamic fields, downward radiation, and sea surface temperature measurements. The data analyses focus on the low-level surface layer properties and surface flux parameterization involving sea state parameters. In the current report we compare turbulence measurements from SPROUL R/V and FLIP R/P in the time periods when these two measurement platforms were within a short distance to each other. Qing Wang is responsible for the overall project. Mr. Richard J. Lind worked on instrument preparation, calibration, and data sampling. Dr. John Kalogiros, an external research associate from National Observatory of Athens, Greece, worked on the data analyses.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 2012
Accession Number
ADA590698

Entities

People

  • Qing Wang

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Temperature
  • Boundary Layer
  • Data Acquisition
  • Data Analysis
  • Heat Flux
  • High Resolution
  • Layers
  • Measurement
  • Sea Level
  • Sea Surface Temperature
  • Shipboard
  • Surface Temperature
  • Surface Waves
  • Wave Power
  • Wind
  • Wind Direction

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Oceanography.