A one-dimensional, atmospheric boundary-layer model is coupled to a
thermodynamic ice model to estimate the surface turbulent fluxes over thick
sea ice. The principal forcing parameters in this time-dependent model are
the air temperature, humidity, and wind speed at a specified level (either
at 2 m or at 850 mb) and the down-welling surface radiative fluxes, The free
parameters are the air temperature, humidity, and wind-speed profiles below
the specified level, the surface skin temperature and ice-temperature
profile, and the surface turbulent fluxes. The goal is to determine how well
we can estimate the turbulent surface heat and momentum fluxes using forcing
parameters from atmospheric temperatures and radiative fluxes retrieved Irom
the TlROS-N Operational Vertical Sounder TOVS) data.
Meteorological observations from the Lead Experiment (LeadEx, April 1992)
ice camp are used to validate turbulent fluxes computed with the surface
observations, and the results are used to compare with estimates based on
radiosonde observations or with estimates based on TOVS data. We and that
the TOVS-based estimates of the stress are significantly more accurate than
those found with a constant geostrophic drag coefficient, with a rool mean
square error about half as large. This improvement is due to stratification
effects included in the boundary-layer model. The errors in the sensible
heat flux estimates, however, are large compared Io the small mean values
observed during the field experiment.