AUTHOR=Cronin Meghan F. , Gentemann Chelle L. , Edson James , Ueki Iwao , Bourassa Mark , Brown Shannon , Clayson Carol Anne , Fairall Chris W. , Farrar J. Thomas , Gille Sarah T. , Gulev Sergey , Josey Simon A. , Kato Seiji , Katsumata Masaki , Kent Elizabeth , Krug Marjolaine , Minnett Peter J. , Parfitt Rhys , Pinker Rachel T. , Stackhouse Paul W. , Swart Sebastiaan , Tomita Hiroyuki , Vandemark Douglas , Weller A. Robert , Yoneyama Kunio , Yu Lisan , Zhang Dongxiao TITLE=Air-Sea Fluxes With a Focus on Heat and Momentum JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=6 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00430 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2019.00430 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Turbulent and radiative exchanges of heat between the ocean and atmosphere (hereafter heat fluxes), ocean surface wind stress, and state variables used to estimate them, are Essential Ocean Variables (EOVs) and Essential Climate Variables (ECVs) influencing weather and climate. This paper describes an observational strategy for producing 3-hourly, 25-km (and an aspirational goal of hourly at 10-km) heat flux and wind stress fields over the global, ice-free ocean with breakthrough 1-day random uncertainty of 15 W m–2 and a bias of less than 5 W m–2. At present this accuracy target is met only for OceanSITES reference station moorings and research vessels (RVs) that follow best practices. To meet these targets globally, in the next decade, satellite-based observations must be optimized for boundary layer measurements of air temperature, humidity, sea surface temperature, and ocean wind stress. In order to tune and validate these satellite measurements, a complementary global