Air-sea enthalpy and momentum exchange at major hurricane wind speeds observed during CBLAST

Since direct turbulent flux measurements in these conditions are extremely difficult, the momentum and enthalpy fluxes were deduced via absolute angular momentum and total energy budgets.

An error analysis of the methodology was performed to quantify and mitigate potentially significant uncertainties resulting from unresolved budget terms and observational errors. An analysis of six missions from the 2003 Coupled Boundary Layers Air-Sea Transfer (CBLAST) field program in major hurricanes Fabian and Isabel was conducted using a new variational technique. The analysis indicates a near-surface mean drag coefficient CD of 2.4 × 10⁻³ with a 46% standard deviation and a mean enthalpy coefficient CK of 1.0 × 10⁻³ with a 40% standard deviation for wind speeds between 52 and 72 m s⁻¹.