Journal article

Nighttime Cool Skin Effect Observed from Infrared SST Autonomous Radiometer (ISAR) and Depth Temperatures

Haifeng Zhang, Helen Beggs, Alexander Ignatov, Alexander V Babanin

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology | American Meteorological Society | Published : 2020

Abstract

The nighttime ocean cool skin signal ΔT [defined as skin sea surface temperature (SSTskin) minus depth SST (SSTdepth)] is investigated using 103 days of matchups between shipborne Infrared SST Autonomous Radiometer (ISAR) SSTskin and water intake SSTdepth at ~7.1–9.9-m depths, in oceans around Australia. Before data analysis, strict quality control of ISAR SSTskin data is conducted and possible diurnal warming contamination is carefully minimized. The statistical distribution of ΔT, and its dependencies on wind speed, heat flux, etc., are consistent with previous findings. The overall average ΔT value is −0.23 K. It is observed that the magnitude of the cool skin signal increases after midni..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council


Awarded by DISI Australia-China Centre


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Discovery under Project DP170101328. The work of A. V. Babanin was supported by the DISI Australia-China Centre under Grant ACSRF48199. The ISAR and meteorological data were collected and processed by the Australian Marine National Facility and Bureau of Meteorology, and sourced from the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) via IMOS (accessible from http://thredds.aodn.org.au/thredds/catalog/IMOS/SOOP/SOOPASF/VLMJ_Investigator/meteorological_sst_observations/YYYY/ISAR-QC/catalog.html, where "YYYY'' is "2016,'' "2017'' or "2018''). IMOS is a national collaborative research infrastructure, supported by the Australian Government. We thank Eric Schulz (Bureau ofMeteorology) for his advice on treatment of the meteorological data set, and Nicole Morgan (CSIRO) for her advice regarding the ISAR SST error budget. Many thanks also go to Christopher W. Fairall from NOAA for providing the COARE bulk flux algorithm v3.6 codes. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this paper are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official NOAAorU.S. Government position, policy, or decision.