TURBULENT HEAT EXCHANGE OVER THE JAPAN SEA IN THE COLD SEASON USING MULTISENSOR SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS AND REANALYSES DATA

Air-sea interaction features in the Japan Sea during the cold season (November 2007–March 2008) are studied using the multisensor satellite microwave measurements, the Interim Reanalysis (ERA-I) from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) with 0.25-deg grid resolution and the Arctic System Reanalysis (ASR) based on the Polar WRF regional forecast model with 30 km horizontal resolution. The sensible and latent heat fluxes were computed using version 3.0 of the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (COARE) bulk algorithm. Fields of the near sea surface wind speed (W) were obtained from synthesizing W retrievals from 9 microwave radiometers (SSMI/SSMIS, AMSR-E, WindSat) and scatterometers (SeaWinds and ASCAT). This allowed a more reliable take into account mesoscale orographic effects off the coast of the Eurasian continent and the formation and evolution of the polar lows which frequently observed over the Japan Sea in the cold seasons. We used sea surface temperature (SST) from 9 km Microwave plus Infrared Optimally Interpolated (MWIR OI) SST product which combines the through-cloud capabilities of the microwave data with the high spatial resolution of the IR SST data. The relatively high resolution of the product provides more detailed SST distribution in the subpolar front areas. Finally near surface air temperature and specific humidity with ~0.31-degree spatial resolution were obtained from The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR).
The satellite/reanalysis based estimates of the turbulent heat exchange over the Japan Sea showed that cold season mean latent and sensible heat flux fields are characterized by high spatial inhomogeneity. However local maximum and minimum heat flux areas allocated from ERA-I and ASR data are more smoothed then that calculated from multisensor satellite measurements. Also there is fine scale structure near Peter the Great Bay which missing in the ERA-I fluxes. Intensive wind jet is observed in this area during cold-air outbreaks. Most probably the wind jet enhances heat transfer from sea surface to atmosphere.