An Assessment of Atmospheric Water Budget Components over Tropical Oceans

Abstract

Abstract Balancing global moisture budgets is a difficult task that is even more challenging at regional scales. Atmospheric water budget components are investigated within five tropical (15°S–15°N) ocean regions, including the Indian Ocean, three Pacific regions, and one Atlantic region, to determine how well data products balance these budgets. Initially, a selection of independent observations and a reanalysis product are evaluated to determine overall closure, between 1998 and 2007. Satellite-based observations from SeaFlux evaporation and Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) precipitation, together with Interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data products, were chosen. Freshwater flux (evaporation minus precipitation) observations and reanalysis atmospheric moisture divergence regional averages are assessed for closure. Moisture budgets show the best closure over the Indian Ocean with a correlation of 89% and an overall imbalance of −3.0% of the anomalies. Of the five regions, the western Pacific Ocean region produces the worst atmospheric moisture budget closure of −21.1%, despite a high correlation of 93%. Average closure over the five regions is within 8.1%, and anomalies are correlated at 83%. ERA-Interim and Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) evaporation rates are 29 and 19 mm month−1 greater than SeaFlux, respectively. To diagnose the differences, wind speed and humidity gradients of the three products are compared utilizing the bulk formula for evaporation. SeaFlux wind speeds are higher, but sea–air humidity gradients are lower. Higher humidity gradients in the reanalyses are due to much dryer near-surface air in ERA-Interim, and the same to a lesser degree in MERRA. These differences counteract each other somewhat, but overall humidity biases exceed wind biases. This is consistent with buoy observations.