An Approach to Estimation of Near-Surface Turbulence and CO2 Transfer Velocity from Remote Sensing Data

Authors

Alexander Soloviev, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Mark A. Donelan, University of Miami
Hans Graber, University of Miami
Brian K. Haus, University of Miami
Peter Schluessel, EUMETSAT - Darmstadt, Germany

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2007

Publication Title

Journal of Marine Systems

Keywords

Air–water interface, Turbulence, Remote sensing, Boundary-layers

ISSN

0924-7963

Volume

66

Issue/No.

1-4

First Page

182

Last Page

194

Abstract

The air–sea CO₂ exchange is primarily determined by the boundary-layer processes in the near-surface layer of the ocean since it is a water-side limited gas. As a consequence, the interfacial component of the CO₂ transfer velocity can be linked to parameters of turbulence in the near-surface layer of the ocean. The development of remote sensing techniques provides a possibility to quantify the dissipation of the turbulent kinetic energy in the near-surface layer of the ocean and the air–sea CO₂ transfer velocity on a global scale. In this work, the dissipation rate of the turbulent kinetic energy in the near-surface layer of the ocean and its patchiness has been linked to the air–sea CO₂ transfer velocity with a boundary-layer type model. Field observations of upper ocean turbulence, laboratory studies, and the direct CO₂ flux measurements are used to validate the model. The model is then forced with the TOPEX POSEIDON wind speed and significant wave height to demonstrate its applicability for estimating the distribution of the near-surface turbulence dissipation rate and gas transfer velocity for an extended (decadal) time period. A future version of this remote sensing algorithm will incorporate directional wind/wave data being available from QUIKSCAT, a now-cast wave model, and satellite heat fluxes. The inclusion of microwave imagery from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) will provide additional information on the fractional whitecap coverage and sea surface turbulence patchiness.

Comments

©2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

NSUWorks Citation

Alexander Soloviev, Mark A. Donelan, Hans Graber, Brian K. Haus, and Peter Schluessel. 2007. An Approach to Estimation of Near-Surface Turbulence and CO2 Transfer Velocity from Remote Sensing Data .Journal of Marine Systems , (1-4) : 182 -194. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/932.

ORCID ID

0000-0001-6519-1547

DOI

10.1016/j.jmarsys.2006.03.023