FY 1989

On climatological monthly mean wind stress and wind stress curl fields over the world ocean

Harrison, D.E.

J. Climate, 2(1), 57–70, doi: 10.1175/1520-0442(1989)002<0057:OCMMWS>2 (1989)

Using a version of the global surface marine observation historical data set, a new 1° spatial resolution global ocean surface wind stress climatology has been evaluated using the Large and Pond surface drag coefficient formulation. These new results are compared, after spatial smoothing, with those of Hellerman and Rosenstein, who used a different drag coefficient form. It is found that the new stresses are almost everywhere smaller than those of Hellerman and Rosenstein, often by 20%-30%, which is greater than the formal error estimates from their calculations. The stress differences show large-scale spatial structure, as would be expected given the spatial variation of the surface stability parameter and the known different wind variability regions. Basin zonally averaged Ekman transports are computed to provide perspective on the significance of the stress differences; annual mean differences can exceed 10 Sv (Sv ≡ 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹) equatorward of 20° lat, but are smaller poleward. Wind stress curl and Sverdrup transport calculations provide a different perspective on the differences; particularly noticeable differences are found in the regions of the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio separation. Large annual variations in midlatitude wind stress curl suggest that study of the forced response at annual periods should be of interest.