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Meteorological buoy observations from the central Iceland Sea
Author(s) -
Harden B. E.,
Renfrew I. A,
Petersen G. N.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1002/2014jd022584
Subject(s) - buoy , environmental science , climatology , flux (metallurgy) , atmospheric sciences , heat flux , wind speed , sensible heat , sea surface temperature , geology , meteorology , geography , oceanography , heat transfer , materials science , physics , metallurgy , thermodynamics
Abstract We present the first continuous in situ atmospheric observations from the central Iceland Sea collected from a meteorological buoy deployed for a 2 year period between 23 November 2007 and 21 August 2009. We use these observations to evaluate the ERA‐Interim reanalysis product and demonstrate that it represented low‐level meteorological fields and surface turbulent fluxes in this region very well. The buoy observations showed that moderate to strong winds were common from any direction, while wind speeds below 5 ms −1 were relatively rare. The observed low‐level air temperature and surface heat fluxes were related to the wind direction with cold‐air outbreaks most common from the northwest. Mean wintertime turbulent heat fluxes were modest (<60 Wm −2 ), but the range was substantial. High heat flux events, greater than 200 Wm −2 , typically occurred every 1–2 weeks in the winter, with each event lasting on average 2.5 days with an average total turbulent heat flux of ∼200 Wm −2 out of the ocean. The most pronounced high heat flux events over the central Iceland Sea were associated with cold‐air outbreaks from the north and west forced by a deep Lofoten Low over the Norwegian Sea.