Numerical modification of atmospheric models to include the feedback of oceanic currents on air-sea fluxes in ocean-atmosphere coupled models

Abstract

In this note we present the modification to bring to an atmospheric model to account for relative winds (i.e. the difference between the near-surface winds and the oceanic currents) instead of absolute winds in the computation of air-sea fluxes. Because of the implicit treatment of the bottom boundary condition in most atmospheric models the use of relative winds involves a modification of both the surface layer parameterization and the tridiagonal matrix for vertical turbulent diffusion