Oceanic fluxes: Observations and applications to monitoring, process studies and prediction efforts

The strategy for measuring oceanic surface fluxes has changed radically over the past decade. Previously, most information on oceanic fluxes of heat and momentum came from surface meteorological measurements taken aboard merchant vessels plying the major shipping routes. This began to change in the latter part of the 1980's and early 1990's as a result of the major international field programs: the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program, the World Ocean Circulation Experiment, and the Joint Global Ocean Flux Study. A major objective of these programs was to enhance our present understanding of ocean surface fluxes on basin to global scales. In tandem with these increased efforts to measure ocean surface fluxes in situ, ocean remote sensing emerged as a means for providing a global perspective for many of the same quantities. This paper discusses the present status of ocean fluxes from the perspective of historical and climatological observations, as a result of major international field programs, as obtained from intensive process oriented experiments, and as a result of ocean remote sensing.