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Implications of the oceanic thermal skin temperature deviation at high wind speed
Author(s) -
Donlon C. J.,
Nightingale T. J.,
Sheasby T.,
Turner J.,
Robinson I. S.,
Emergy W. J.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/1999gl900547
Subject(s) - wind speed , sea surface temperature , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , skin temperature , standard deviation , thermal , meteorology , geology , climatology , physics , mathematics , statistics , medicine , biomedical engineering
Extensive oceanographic and atmospheric observations obtained during three independent experiments in the Atlantic Ocean are used to demonstrate the relationship between wind speed and the temperature deviation Δ T , which is defined as the sea surface skin temperature (SSST) minus the subsurface bulk sea surface temperature (BSST). At wind speeds <6 m s −1 , the variability of Δ T increases because thermal stratification complicates the measurement and interpretation of Δ T : extreme Δ T magnitudes of >1.5 K are common during periods of high insolation. The variability of Δ T at night is reduced and extreme cool skin temperatures of < −0.5 K are recorded. In all cases, at wind speeds >6 m s −1 , the variability of Δ T is diminished and the mean value of Δ T approximates a cool bias of −0.14 K±0.1 K. We conclude that BSST measurements obtained at wind speeds >6 m s −1 , when corrected for a small ( −0.14 K) cool bias, are representative of the SSST and can be used with confidence to validate satellite derived SSST. When the wind speed is <6 m s −1 and the magnitude of Δ T is high, in situ radio metric SSST measurements are mandatory to validate satellite derived SSST.