Bulk parameterization of air-sea exchanges of heat and water vapor including the molecular constraints at the interface.

Abstract

A model is developed for the marine atmospheric surface layer including the interfacial sublayers on both sides of the air-sea interface where molecular constraints on transports are important. Flux-profile relations which are based on the postulation of intermittent renewal of the surface fluid are matched to the logarithmic profiles and compared with both field and laboratory measurements. These relations enable numerical determination of air-sea exchanges of momentum, heat and water vapor (or bulk transfer coefficients) employing the bulk parameters of mean wind speed, temperature and humidity at a certain height in the atmospheric surface layer, and the water temperature.- from Authors