Air-sea interactions in the Southeast Pacific: Mooring, ship, and float observations

The atmosphere interacts with the ocean through a number of mechanisms: for example, shortwave radiation heats the surface waters, wind-driven turbulence inputs momentum to the upper ocean, and precipitation freshens the surface layer. These processes are especially challenging to measure in the Southern Ocean due to its severe winter storms. The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) air-sea flux mooring, deployed in February 2015 at 55°S,90°W, provides the first extended time series of upper ocean measurements from the southeast Pacific. This poster focuses on heat fluxes and the effect of meteorological events on the surface ocean at the OOI mooring. The ERA-interim, OAFlux, NCEP, and the Southern Ocean State Estimate flux products are compared to data from the OOI mooring and from the December 2015 OOI deployment cruise on the R/V Palmer in the southeast Pacific. The flux products agree well with the observations. An analysis of storm events during the cruise shows that even summer storms can quickly alter the surface waters by decreasing temperature and salinity while deepening the mixed layer from under 50 m to over 100 m in less than three days.