Climatologically Significant Effects of Some Approximations in the Bulk Parameterizations of Turbulent Air–Sea Fluxes

Abstract

his paper quantifies the impacts of approximations and assumptions in the parameterization of bulk formulas on the exchange of momentum, heat, and freshwater computed between the ocean and atmosphere. An ensemble of sensitivity experiments is examined. Climatologies of wind stress, turbulent heat flux, and evaporation for the period 1982?2014 are computed using SST and surface meteorological state variables from ERA-Interim. Each experiment differs from the defined control experiment in only one aspect of the parameterization of the bulk formulas. The wind stress is most sensitive to the closure used to relate the neutral drag coefficient to the wind speed in the bulk algorithm, which mainly involves the value of the Charnock parameter. The disagreement between the state-of-the-art algorithms examined is typically on the order of 10%. The largest uncertainties in turbulent heat flux and evaporation are also related to the choice of the algorithm (typically 15%) but also emerge in experiments examining approximations related to the surface temperature and saturation humidity. Thus, approximations for the skin temperature and the salt-related reduction of saturation humidity have a substantial impact on the heat flux and evaporation (typically 10%). Approximations such as the use of a fixed air density, sea level pressure, or simplified formula for the saturation humidity lead to errors no larger than 4% when tested individually. The impacts of these approximations combine linearly when implemented together, yielding errors up to 20% over mid- and subpolar latitudes.