Sea surface freshwater flux estimates from GECCO, HOAPS and NCEP

V. Romanova; A. Köhl; D. Stammer; C. Klepp; A. Andersson; S. Bakan

doi:10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00447.x

Sea surface freshwater flux estimates from GECCO, HOAPS and NCEP

Tellus

Volume 62 (2010): Issue 4

By: V. Romanova, A. Köhl, D. Stammer, C. Klepp, A. Andersson and S. Bakan

Open Access

|Jan 2010

Abstract

Surface net freshwater flux fields, estimated from the GECCO ocean state estimation effort over the 50 yr period 1951–2001, are compared to purely satellite-based HOAPS freshwater flux estimates and to the NCEP atmospheric re-analysis net surface freshwater flux fields to assess the quality of all flux products and to improve our understanding of the time-mean surface freshwater flux distribution as well as its temporal variability. Surface flux fields are adjusted by the GECCO state estimation procedure together with initial temperature and salinity conditions so that the model simulation becomes consistent with ocean observations. The entirely independent HOAPS net surface freshwater flux fields result from the difference between SSM/I based precipitation estimates and fields of evaporation resulting from a bulk aerodynamic approach using SSM/I data and the Pathfinder SST. All three products agree well on a global scale. However, overall GECCO seems to have moved away from the NCEP/NCAR first guess surface fluxes and is often closer to the HOAPS data set. This holds for the time mean as well as for the seasonal cycle.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0870.2009.00447.x | Journal eISSN: 3035-9554

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Language: English

Page range: 435 - 452

Submitted on: Aug 5, 2009

Accepted on: Mar 11, 2010

Published on: Jan 1, 2010

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2010 V. Romanova, A. Köhl, D. Stammer, C. Klepp, A. Andersson, S. Bakan, published by Stockholm University Press
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Volume 62 (2010): Issue 4