final_program_abstracts[1]

11 IMSC Session Program
New approaches to the construction of gridded datasets for
air-sea interaction
Monday - Poster Session 4
David I. Berry and Elizabeth C. Kent
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK
Any air-sea flux dataset must combine observations of different variables using
parameterisations of air-sea exchange. For example the estimation of surface heat flux
requires information on wind speed, air temperature, sea surface temperature and
humidity. There are two common approaches to such dataset construction. The first
makes flux estimates for sets of observations using collocated observations of all the
required parameters from a single ship or buoy. These flux estimates are then used to
construct a gridded dataset. An alternative approach is to construct gridded datasets of
each individual parameter and calculate fluxes for each grid-box from these. Each
method has its advantages and disadvantages and the best approach is dependent on
the characteristics of the input data, including the covariance of the different input
variables and the error structure of the data.
Lessons learnt from the construction of a gridded air-sea flux dataset (NOCS Flux
Dataset v2.0) will be presented. This dataset is the first air-sea flux dataset to be
characterised with estimates of random and bias uncertainty. The dataset was
constructed using the best available information on data bias and uncertainty and can
be demonstrated to better represent variability than datasets based on the same data
which are constructed without consideration of data uncertainty. Problems remain,
especially in data sparse regions and plans to improve the dataset will be outlined.
Abstracts 37