Air-Sea Flux

An air-sea flux is the rate of exchange of heat, moisture, momentum, gas, or particles across the ocean-atmosphere interface, expressed per unit area (W/m2 for heat, N/m2 for momentum). The turbulent components are estimated with bulk aerodynamic formulae driven by the air-sea difference in temperature, humidity, and wind speed times a transfer coefficient. The net surface heat flux combines net shortwave, net longwave, sensible, and latent terms; the momentum flux is the wind stress. These fluxes set the sea surface temperature, mixed-layer depth, and the ocean’s role in climate, and they are observed from flux buoys, research ships, and the OceanSITES network.