Parameterization of the cool skin of the ocean and of the air-ocean gas transfer on the basis of modeling surface renewal

Abstract

Heat and gas transport in molecular sublayers at the air-sea interface is governed by similar laws. A model of renewal type based on the physics of molecular sublayers allows the derivation of a parameterization of the temperature difference across the cool skin of the ocean and of the coefficient of the direct air-sea gas transfer. The parameterizations have been compared with cool skin data obtained from campaigns in the tropical and subtropical Atlantic Ocean, while the gas transfer data are compiled from several experiments in the global ocean. -from Authors