Variability of the Ocean-atmosphere Fluxes in the North Atlantic

We analyse climate variability in the North Atlantic sea-air fluxes derived from the voluntary observing ship (VOS) data and NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis. An ensemble of VOS climatologies has been produced in by the cross-application of different parameterizations and variable corrections. Interannual to decadal scale variability in both VOS and NCEP/NCAR fluxes is primarily determined by the turbulent fluxes rather than by radiative fluxes. Application of different parameterizations does not affect interannual variability in the VOS products, but changes the magnitude of variability. Although there is a similarity in the variability of fluxes derived from the NCEP/NCAR and VOS in mid latitudes an subtropics, strong disagreement is observed in the tropics and high latitudes, where it is associated with the undersampling. Simulation of the VOSlike sampling in the NCEP/NCAR fluxes leads to much more agreeable variability patterns. Conclusions are made concerning the effectiveness of the use of different flux products as forcing functions fro ocean general circulation models.