Air-Sea Interaction at Oregon State University

The fluxes of momentum, heat, energy, and materials from the atmosphere to the ocean are the direct and indirect cause of most ocean motions and property variability. In turn, the fluxes of latent and sensible heat from the ocean to the atmosphere are both an essential component of the Earth's climate system and important local and regional influences on the structure of the lower atmosphere. COAS researchers study air-sea interaction using a wide variety of observational and modeling methods.

Examples of faculty research projects include:

• Persistent Small-Scale Features in Ocean Winds
• Orographically Modified Winds
• Sampling Errors In Wind Fields Constructed From Single And Multiple Scatterometer Datasets
• Satellite Observations of the Wind Jets off Central America
• Turbulent Dissipation During a Westerly Wind Burst: A Comparison of Large Eddy Simulation Results and Microstructure Measurementss
• SST Influence on Surface Wind Stress in Numerical Weather Prediction and Climate Models
• Arctic Meteorological Modeling
• Climatology of Global Ocean Winds (COGOW)

Research in Air-Sea Interaction at COAS is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Naval Research.