In the following I will try to review briefly some efforts that have 

 been made to evaluate the quantitative effects of sea-air heat and vapor 

 transfers on atmospheric circulation systems, largely in the context of the 

 weather prediction problem. (l will not attempt to deal with the important 

 salt transfer problem at all,) 



QUANTITATIVE ESTIMATES OF SEA- AIR TRANSFER 

 AND ITS EFFECT ON CIRCULATION 



Investigations of this problem have almost universally ignored inter- 

 action effects, (i.e., thermodynamic feedback to the oceans), and it appears 

 very likely that such feedbacks may indeed be second order effects. The 

 ocean is thus taken as time- invariant. 



Three approaches to the problem have been tried. 



(1) Direct computations of the sea-air heat transfer (a) from the 

 transfer equations, following the Eulerian approach of Sverdrup (e.g., Jacobs, 

 Petterssen, et al., Pyke), (b) empirically from trajectory (Langrangian, 

 air mass modification) studies (e.g., Burke, Craddock, Spar), and (c) from 

 line integral computations of ehergy flux divergence (Manabe). 



(2) Indirect evaluation of sea-air heat transfers from a study of the 

 errors generated by adiabatic NWP— 'models (e.g., Winston, Martin, Petterssen, 

 et al . , Pyke ) . 



(3) NWP computations with diabatic models , including sea-air heat 

 transfer (Bushby and Hinds, Reed, Spar). 



A. Direct Transfer Computations 



Direct computations of sea-air energy transfer do not really tell 

 us what role the transfer plays in the generation of circulation. Neverthe- 

 less, the results are illuminating, and potentially useful for prediction. 



To apply the Sverdrup-type transfer equations to the computation of 

 sensible or latent heat transfer, as Petterssen, et al. (1962) and Pyke 

 (1965) have done for diagnostic purposes, and others — Bushy and Hinds (1955), 

 Reed (1958) and Spar (1962), for example — have done in prognostic exercises, 

 one must have some knowledge of the transfer coefficients, and indeed one 

 really needs to know the correct functional form of the transfer relation. 

 While it is convenient to assume a linear relation between the transfer rate 

 and the air-sea temperature or vapor pressure difference, and a linear 

 dependence on wind speed, as well, these assumptions are really not strongly 

 supported by data. 

 l/lUumerical weather prediction 



