A new approach to estimation of global air-sea gas transfer velocity fields using dual-frequency altimeter backscatter
Frew, Nelson M.
Glover, David M.
Bock, Erik J.
McCue, Scott J.
MetadataShow full item record
A new approach to estimating air-sea gas transfer velocities based on normalized backscatter from the dual-frequency TOPEX and Jason-1 altimeters is described. The differential scattering of Ku-band (13.6 GHz) and C-band (5.3 GHz) microwave pulses is used to isolate the contribution of small-scale waves to mean square slope and gas transfer. Mean square slope is derived for the nominal wave number range 40–100 rad m−1 by differencing mean square slope estimates computed from the normalized backscatter in each band, using a simple geometric optics model. Model parameters for calculating the differenced mean square slope over this wave number range are optimized using in situ optical slope measurements. An empirical relation between gas transfer velocity and mean square slope, also based on field measurements, is then used to derive gas transfer velocities. Initial results demonstrate that the calculated transfer velocities exhibit magnitudes and a dynamic range which are generally consistent with existing field measurements. The new algorithm is used to construct monthly global maps of gas transfer velocity and to illustrate seasonal transfer velocity variations over a 1-year period. The measurement precision estimated from >106 duplicate observations of the sea surface by TOPEX and Jason-1 altimeters orbiting in tandem is better than 10%. The estimated overall uncertainty of the method is ±30%. The long-term global, area-weighted, Schmidt number corrected, mean gas transfer velocity is 13.7 ± 4.1 cm h−1. The new approach, based on surface roughness, represents a potential alternative to commonly used parameterizations based on wind speed.
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 112 (2007): C11003, doi:10.1029/2006JC003819.
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
Caruso, Michael J.; Sirkes, Ziv; Flament, Pierre J.; Baker, M. K. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1990-09)Satellite altimeters provide many opportunities for oceanographers to supplement their research with a valuable new data set. The recent GEOSAT exact repeat mission is the first of several altimeter missions proposed ...
Monthly maps of sea surface height in the North Atlantic and zonal indices for the Gulf Stream using TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data Singh, Sandipa; Kelly, Kathryn A. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1997-06)Monthly Maps of sea surface height are constructed for the North Atlantic Ocean using TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter data, Mean sea surface height is reconstructed using a weighted combination of historical, hydrographic data ...
Singh, Sandipa; Caruso, Michael J.; Kelly, Kathryn A. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 1994-07)Altimeter data from satellites are being used in an ongoing effort to obtain data sets with temporal as well as global coverage. This report describes the algorithms formulated and the programs written for the use of ...