Estimates of Latent Heat and Sensible Heat Fluxes using Satellite data

Latent and sensible heat fluxes over the global oceans are estimated using SSM/I (Special Sensor Microwave Imager) and AVHRR MCSST (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature). The heat fluxes are computed from SSM/I wind speeds and surface humidity, the MCSST, and NCEP Reanalysis sea level pressures and 2-m temperatures from 1996 to 1997. The diabatic conditions bulk formula (Kondo, 1975) is used to compute the heat fluxes. To validate, the derived fluxes are compared to the measurements of 3 JMA buoys. The wind speeds and surface humidity derived from SSM/I have accuracies of 1.37m/s and 1.7g/kg, respectively. The heat fluxes were estimated these factors and the standard error of the latent and sensible heat fluxes are 5.53 W/m$^2$ and 3.33 W/m$^2$. The latest El-Nino phenomenon started at the beginning of 1997 and this event was larger than any others. We compare the heat fluxes in 1997 with the fluxes in 1996 and investigate the spatial movement of meteorological factors as well as the heat fluxes associated with El-Nino appearance.