Assessing the potential of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) surface temperature and specific humidity in turbulent heat flux estimates in the Southern Ocean

[1] Surface air temperature (TA), sea surface temperature (TO), and surface specific humidity (qa) satellite retrievals from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) are compared with shipboard measurements across Drake Passage for the period from September 2002 to June 2007. The objective is to evaluate whether AIRS retrievals, in conjunction with microwave sea surface temperatures from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSRE), can provide sufficiently accurate parameters to estimate sensible and latent heat fluxes in the data‐limited Southern Ocean. The collocated data show that both AIRS TA and TO are colder than those from shipboard measurements, with a time mean bias of −2.03°C for TA and −0.22°C for TO. Results show that air‐sea temperature difference (TA − TO), qa, and relative humidity (RH) are the major factors contributing to the differences between satellite and shipboard temperature measurements. Differences in AIRS and shipboard TA (DTA) decrease with increasing TA − TO, and DTA increases with increasing RH, whereas differences in AIRS and shipboard TO (DTO) increase with both increasing TA − TO and increasing qa. The time mean qa from AIRS is lower than the shipboard qa by 0.69 g/kg. Statistical analyses suggest that TA − TO, cloud, and qa are the major contributors to the qa difference (Dqa). Dqa becomes more negative with increasing TA − TO and increasing cloud fraction. Dqa also becomes more negative as qa increases. Compared with TA, TO, and TA − TO, from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research Reanalysis (NCEP), AIRS‐derived and AMSRE‐derived variables show more small‐scale spatial structure, as is also typical of the ship observations. Although AIRS qa gives a better representation of the full range of values of shipboard qa, its deviation from shipboard qa is relatively large compared to NCEP qa. Compared with several existing gridded flux products, turbulent fluxes estimated from AIRS and AMSRE data using bulk algorithms are better able to represent the full range of flux values estimated from shipboard parameters.

[1]  Stuart D. Smith.  Coefficients for sea surface wind stress, heat flux, and wind profiles as a function of wind speed and temperature , 1988 .

[2]  Peter K. Taylor,et al.  Intercomparison and validation of ocean–atmosphere energy flux fields. Final report of the Joint WCRP/SCOR Working Group on Air–Sea Fluxes (SCOR Working Group 110) , 2000 .

[3]  Peter J. Minnett,et al.  The Miami2001 Infrared Radiometer Calibration and Intercomparison. Part II: Shipboard Results , 2004 .

[4]  Robert A. Weller,et al.  Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Heat Fluxes for the Global Ice-Free Oceans (1981–2005) , 2007 .

[5]  Hartmut H. Aumann,et al.  Three years of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder radiometric calibration validation using sea surface temperatures , 2006 .

[6]  E. F. Bradley,et al.  Bulk Parameterization of Air–Sea Fluxes: Updates and Verification for the COARE Algorithm , 2003 .

[7]  Edward M. Armstrong,et al.  The Effect of Aerosols and Clouds on the Retrieval of Infrared Sea Surface Temperatures , 2004 .

[8]  Remo Guidieri.  Res , 1995, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics.

[9]  M. Kubota,et al.  An analysis of the accuracy of Japanese Ocean Flux data sets with Use of Remote sensing Observations (J‐OFURO) satellite‐derived latent heat flux using moored buoy data , 2006 .

[10]  Janet Sprintall,et al.  Validation of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) sea surface temperature in the Southern Ocean , 2006 .

[11]  Darren L. Jackson,et al.  Near‐surface retrieval of air temperature and specific humidity using multisensor microwave satellite observations , 2004 .

[12]  Edward T. Olsen,et al.  Satellite remote sounding of atmospheric boundary layer temperature inversions over the subtropical eastern Pacific , 2004 .

[13]  Carl A. Mears,et al.  Comparison of Special Sensor Microwave Imager and buoy‐measured wind speeds from 1987 to 1997 , 2001 .

[14]  Carl A. Mears,et al.  In situ validation of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission microwave sea surface temperatures , 2004 .

[15]  Stefan Rahmstorf,et al.  On the driving processes of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation , 2007 .

[16]  J. Sprintall.  Seasonal to interannual upper-ocean variability in the Drake Passage , 2003 .

[17]  Christopher D. Barnet,et al.  Accuracy of geophysical parameters derived from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit as a function of fractional cloud cover , 2006 .

[18]  D. Battisti,et al.  The Basic Effects of Atmosphere–Ocean Thermal Coupling on Midlatitude Variability* , 1998 .

[19]  Christopher J. Merchant,et al.  Toward the elimination of bias in satellite retrievals of sea surface temperature: 2. Comparison with in situ measurements , 1999 .

[20]  Christopher D. Barnet,et al.  Validation of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder temperature and water vapor retrievals with matched radiosonde measurements and forecasts , 2006 .

[21]  Thomas Meissner,et al.  AMSR Ocean Algorithm , 2000 .

[22]  L. Larrabee Strow,et al.  Atmospheric Radiation Measurement site atmospheric state best estimates for Atmospheric Infrared Sounder temperature and water vapor retrieval validation , 2006 .

[23]  Mark A. Bourassa,et al.  Objectively Derived Daily “Winds” from Satellite Scatterometer Data , 2000 .

[24]  Christopher D. Barnet,et al.  Retrieval of atmospheric and surface parameters from AIRS/AMSU/HSB data in the presence of clouds , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[25]  D. Thompson,et al.  Observations of large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction in the Southern Hemisphere , 2007 .

[26]  On the thermohaline circulation in flat bottom marginal seas , 2003 .

[27]  C. M. Kishtawal,et al.  A New Technique for Estimation of Surface Latent Heat Fluxes Using Satellite-Based Observations , 2005 .

[28]  William L. Smith,et al.  AIRS/AMSU/HSB on the Aqua mission: design, science objectives, data products, and processing systems , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[29]  Abderrahim Bentamy,et al.  Satellite Estimates of Wind Speed and Latent Heat Flux over the Global Oceans , 2003 .

[30]  Andrew Gettelman,et al.  Relative humidity over Antarctica from radiosondes, satellites, and a general circulation model , 2006 .

[31]  Janet Sprintall,et al.  An Assessment of the Southern Ocean Mixed Layer Heat Budget , 2006 .

[32]  Janet Sprintall,et al.  Location of the Antarctic Polar Front from AMSR-E Satellite Sea Surface Temperature Measurements , 2006 .

[33]  E. F. Bradley,et al.  Bulk parameterization of air‐sea fluxes for Tropical Ocean‐Global Atmosphere Coupled‐Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment , 1996 .

[34]  Eric J. Fetzer,et al.  Preface to special section: Validation of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder Observations , 2006 .