Ocean Surface Heat Flux
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Surface heat flux is exchange of heat, per unit area, crossing the surface between the ocean and the atmosphere. It consists of the turbulent and the radiative components. These fluxes are major contributors to the energy and moisture budgets, and are largely responsible for thermodynamic coupling the ocean and atmosphere at global and regional scales, and variability of these fluxes is in part related to large-scale variability in weather and climate patterns. | |
| Domain: | Ocean | |
| Subdomain: | Physical | |
| Scientific Area: | Physical Properties | |
| ECV Steward: | Meghan Cronin | |
| Products: | Latent Heat Flux; Sensible Heat Flux; Radiative Heat Flux | |
Sensible and Latent Heat Fluxes
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Figure: Mean a) Latent and b) Sensible Heat Fluxes for 2017. Source: http://oaflux.whoi.edu/heatflux.html. |
ECV Products and Requirements
These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).
The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Ocean Surface Heat Flux.
| Products | Radiative Heat Flux | Sensible Heat Flux | Latent Heat Flux | ||
| (*) | Unit | Values | Values | Values | |
| Horizontal Resolution | G | km | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| B | 25 | 25 | 25 | ||
| T | 100 | 100 | 100 | ||
| Vertical Resolution | G | - | - | - | |
| B | - | - | - | ||
| T | - | - | - | ||
| Temporal Resolution | G | h | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| B | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
| T | 24 | 24 | 24 | ||
| Timeliness | G | d | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| B | 30 | 30 | 30 | ||
| T | 365 | 365 | 365 | ||
| Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma) | G | W m-2 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| B | 15 | 15 | 15 | ||
| T | 20 | 20 | 20 | ||
| Stability | G | W m-2/ decade | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| B | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
| T | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful
Data Sources
This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the GCOS Secretariat.
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Objectively Analyzed air-sea Fluxes (OAFlux)
- National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
- Seaflux (This website link will be updated)
- Shipboard Automated Meteorological and Oceanographic System (SAMOS)
- ECV Inventory by the CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate (WGClimate)
