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1. Air-Sea Fluxes With a Focus on Heat and Momentum

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00430  

   Cronin, Meghan F.; Gentemann, Chelle L.; Edson, James; Ueki, Iwao; Bourassa, Mark; Brown, Shannon; Clayson, Carol Anne; Fairall, Chris W.; Farrar, J. Thomas; Gille, Sarah T.; et al (July 2019, Frontiers in Marine Science)
2. The impact of sea ice on the air-sea exchange of mercury in the Arctic Ocean

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2018.12.001  

   DiMento, Brian P.; Mason, Robert P.; Brooks, Steven; Moore, Chris (February 2019, Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers)
3. On the Hyperbolicity of the Bulk Air–Sea Heat Flux Functions: Insights into the Efficiency of Air–Sea Moisture Disequilibrium for Tropical Cyclone Intensification

   https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-20-0324.1  

   Jaimes de la Cruz, Benjamin; Shay, Lynn K.; Wadler, Joshua B.; Rudzin, Johna E. (May 2021, Monthly Weather Review)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Sea-to-air heat fluxes are the energy source for tropical cyclone (TC) development and maintenance. In the bulk aerodynamic formulas, these fluxes are a function of surface wind speed U 10 and air–sea temperature and moisture disequilibrium (Δ T and Δ q , respectively). Although many studies have explained TC intensification through the mutual dependence between increasing U 10 and increasing sea-to-air heat fluxes, recent studies have found that TC intensification can occur through deep convective vortex structures that obtain their local buoyancy from sea-to-air moisture fluxes, even under conditions of relatively low wind. Herein, a new perspective on the bulk aerodynamic formulas is introduced to evaluate the relative contribution of wind-driven ( U 10 ) and thermodynamically driven (Δ T and Δ q ) ocean heat uptake. Previously unnoticed salient properties of these formulas, reported here, are as follows: 1) these functions are hyperbolic and 2) increasing Δ q is an efficient mechanism for enhancing the fluxes. This new perspective was used to investigate surface heat fluxes in six TCs during phases of steady-state intensity (SS), slow intensification (SI), and rapid intensification (RI). A capping of wind-driven heat uptake was found during periods of SS, SI, and RI. Compensation by larger values of Δ q > 5 g kg −1 at moderate values of U 10 led to intense inner-core moisture fluxes of greater than 600 W m −2 during RI. Peak values in Δ q preferentially occurred over oceanic regimes with higher sea surface temperature (SST) and upper-ocean heat content. Thus, increasing SST and Δ q is a very effective way to increase surface heat fluxes—this can easily be achieved as a TC moves over deeper warm oceanic regimes. 

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4. Atmospheric Variability Drives Anomalies in the Bering Sea Air–Sea Heat Exchange

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0105.1  

   Hayden, Emily_E; O’Neill, Larry_W; Zippel, Seth_F (December 2024, Journal of Climate)

   Abstract High latitudes, including the Bering Sea, are experiencing unprecedented rates of change. Long-term Bering Sea warming trends have been identified, and marine heatwaves (MHWs), event-scale elevated sea surface temperature (SST) extremes, have also increased in frequency and longevity in recent years. Recent work has shown that variability in air–sea coupling plays a dominant role in driving Bering Sea upper-ocean thermal variability and that surface forcing has driven an increase in the occurrence of positive ocean temperature anomalies since 2010. In this work, we characterize the drivers of the anomalous surface air–sea heat fluxes in the Bering Sea over the period 2010–22 using ERA5 fields. We show that the surface turbulent heat flux dominates the net surface heat flux variability from September to April and is primarily a result of near-surface air temperature and specific humidity anomalies. The airmass anomalies that account for the majority of the turbulent heat flux variability are a function of wind direction, with southerly (northerly) wind advecting anomalously warm (cool), moist (dry) air over the Bering Sea, resulting in positive (negative) surface turbulent flux anomalies. During the remaining months of the year, anomalies in the surface radiative fluxes account for the majority of the net surface heat flux variability and are a result of anomalous cloud coverage, anomalous lower-tropospheric virtual temperature, and sea ice coverage variability. Our results indicate that atmospheric variability drives much of the Bering Sea upper-ocean temperature variability through the mediation of the surface heat fluxes during the analysis period. Significance StatementA long-term ocean warming trend and a recent increase in marine heatwaves in the Bering Sea have been identified. Previous work showed that anomalies in the exchange of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere were the primary driver of Bering Sea temperature variability, but the processes responsible for the heat exchange anomalies were unknown. In this work, we show that the atmosphere is the primary driver of anomalies in the Bering Sea air–sea heat exchange and therefore plays an important role in altering the thermal state of the Bering Sea. Our results highlight the importance of understanding more about how the ocean and the atmosphere interact at high latitudes and how this relationship will be affected by future climate change. 

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5. The Intensifying Role of High Wind Speeds on Air‐Sea Carbon Dioxide Exchange

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL090713  

   Gu, Yuanyuan; Katul, Gabriel G.; Cassar, Nicolas (March 2021, Geophysical Research Letters)

   null (Ed.)