Ocean-Atmosphere fluxes, ENSO

Take away ideas and understandings

• Fluxes across the sea surface interface.

• Heat exchange between ocean and atmosphere across the sea surface is a product of a number of processes:

• solar radiation heats the ocean;

• long wave back radiation cools the ocean;

• heat transfer by conduction and convection between the air and water, generally cools the ocean;

• and evaporation of water from the ocean surface cools the ocean.

• Mean climatology of the tropical Pacific ocean-atmosphere system.

• Changes in equatorial Pacific ocean and atmosphere circulation associated with El Niño and La Niña events.

• Two dynamic feedback processes which act to intensify El Niño and La Niña events.

• Why this system oscillates and the time-scale of this oscillation.

Link to detailed Air-Sea Flux lecture notes

Link to detailed ENSO lecture notes