Air-Sea Transfer Coefficients Determined from Measurements Made 200 km from Land

Abstract

Measurements of wind speed, ocean surface temperature, fluxes and flux gradients of sensible and latent heat have been made in the trade wind regime 200 km from land by means of an instrumented aircraft. Values of the bulk transfer coefficients for latent and sensible heat are found to be CEN = 1.18 ? 10?3 and CHN = 1.43 ? 10?1, respectively. This leads to a ratio CEN/CHN = 0.82, which statistically is significantly less than unity. This is less consistent with recent values, determined in AMTEX expeditions, than with earlier measurements reported in the literature.