Comparison of ERA5 turbulent fluxes at the air–sea interface with measurements from a wave‐following platform

Abstract

Turbulent fluxes at the air–sea interface were estimated with data collected in 2011–2020 with a low‐profile platform named OCARINA during eight experiments in five regions: 2011, 2015, and 2016 in the Iroise Sea; 2012 in the tropical Atlantic; 2014 in the Chilie–Peru upwelling; 2017 and 2018 in the Mediterranean Sea, and 2018 and 2020 in Barbados. The observations were carried out with moderate winds (2–10 m s⁻¹) and average wave heights of 1.5 m. In this study, the authors used the fluxes calculated by the bulk method using OCARINA-sampled data as the input. These data can validate the fluxes estimated from ERA5 reanalysis data. The OCARINA and ERA5 data were taken concomitantly. To do this, the authors established an algorithm to extract the OCARINA data as closely as possible to the reanalysis data in time and position. The measurements of the OCARINA platform can conclude on the relevance of the widely used reanalysis data.