A Variational Method for Computation of Sensible Heat Flux over the Arctic Sea Ice

Abstract

In this study, a variational approach was employed to compute surface sensible heat flux over the Arctic sea ice. Because the variational approach is able to take into account information from the Monin?Obukhov similarity theory (MOST) as well as the observed meteorological information, it is expected to improve the pure MOST-based approach in computation of sensible heat flux. Verifications using the direct eddy-correlation measurements over the Arctic sea ice during the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) experiment period of 1997/98 show that the variational method yields good agreement between the computed and the measured sensible heat fluxes. The variational method is also shown to be more accurate than the traditional MOST method in the computation of sensible heat flux over the Arctic sea ice.