Northern Hemisphere Extratropical Turbulent Heat Fluxes in ASRv2 and Global Reanalyses

Abstract

Abstract Large-scale objectively analyzed gridded products and satellite estimates of sensible (H) and latent (LE) heat fluxes over the extratropical Northern Hemisphere are compared to those derived from the regional Arctic System Reanalysis version 2 (ASRv2) and a selection of current-generation global reanalyses. Differences in H and LE among the reanalyses are strongly linked to the wind speed magnitudes and vegetation cover. Specifically, ASRv2 wind speeds match closely with observations over the northern oceans, leading to an improved representation of H compared to the global reanalyses. Comparison of evaporative fraction shows that the global reanalyses are characterized by a similar H and LE partitioning from April through September, and therefore exhibit weak intraseasonal variability. However, the higher horizontal resolution and weekly modification of the vegetation cover based on satellite data in ASRv2 provides an improved snow–albedo feedback related to changes in the leaf area index. Hence, ASRv2 better captures the small-scale processes associated with day-to-day vegetation feedbacks with particular improvements to the H over land. All of the reanalyses provide realistic dominant hemispheric patterns of H and LE and the locations of maximum and minimum fluxes, but they differ greatly with respect to magnitude. This is especially true for LE over oceanic regions. Therefore, uncertainties in heat fluxes remain that may be alleviated in reanalyses through improved representation of physical processes and enhanced assimilation of observations.