Air-sea momentum flux climatologies: A review of drag relation for parameterization choice on wind stress in the North Atlantic and the European Arctic

Abstract. In this paper we have chosen to check the differences between the relevant or most commonly used parameterizations for drag coefficient (C_D) for the momentum transfer values, especially in the North Atlantic (NA) and the European Arctic (EA). As is well know, the exact equation in the North equation that describes the connection betwenn the drag coefficient and wind speed depends on the author. We studied monthly values of air-sea momentum flux resulting from the choice of different drag coefficient parameterizations, adapted them to momentum flux (wind stress) calculations using SAR wind fields, sea-ice masks, as well as integrating procedures. We calculated monthly momentum flux averages on a 1º x 1º degree grid and derive average values for the North Atlantic and the European Arctic. We compared the resulting spreads in momentum flux to global values and values in the tropics, an area of prevailing low winds. We show that the choice of drag coefficient parameterization can lead to significant differences in resultant momentum flux (or wind stress) values. We found that the spread of results stemming from the choice of drag coefficient parameterization was 14 % in the Arctic, the North Atlantic and globally, but it was higher (19 %) in the tropics. On monthly time scales, the differences were larger at up to 29 % in the North Atlantic and 36 % in the European Arctic (in months of low winds) and even 50 % locally (the area west of Spitsbergen). When we chose the oldest parameterization (e.g Wu, 1969 (W69)) values of momentum flux were largest for all months, in compare to values from the two newest parameterizations (Large and Yeager, 2004 (LY04) and Andreas, 2012 (A12)), in both regions with high and low winds and C_D values were consistently higher for all wind speeds. For global data not much seasonal change was note due to the fact that the strongest winds are in autumn and winter as these seasons are inverse by six months for the northern and southern hemispheres. The situation was more complicated when we considered results from the North Atlantic, as the seasonal variation in wind speed is clearly marked out there. With high winter winds, the A12 parameterization was no longer the one that produces the smallest wind stress. In this region, in summer, the highest wind stress values were produced by the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, where in C_D has a constant value. However, for low summer winds, it is the lowermost outlier. As the A12 parameterization behaves so distinctly differently with low winds, we showed seasonal results for the tropical ocean. The sequence of values for the parameterization was similar to that of the global ocean, but with visible differences betwenn NCEP/NCAR, A12 and LY04 parameterizaions. Because parameterization is supported with the largest experimental data set observations of very low (or even negative) momentum flux values for developed swell and low winds, our results suggest that most circulation models overestimate momentum flux.