Summer atmospheric conditions over the Japan/East Sea

Monthly mean climatologies of the JES surface heat flux and wind stress were computed using the 1991-2001 ECMWF surface flux time series. The annual heat flux cycle varies from a maximum heating of +182 W/m2 in June to a maximum cooling of −322 W/m2 in December with the greatest loss at the SW edge of the sea. The annual-mean flux is −48 W/m2. The monthly mean wind stress in winter is nearly four times the mean summer value of 0.057 N/m2, with the winter stress towards the S-SE replaced by stress towards the N-NE in summer. The strongest stresses are over the North-central portion of the sea. Our ship/model comparisons suggest that the ECMWF heat flux is biased roughly 25-55 W/m2 high due to systematic model short-wave flux overestimation and that the ECMWF wind stress is biased roughly 15-25% low due to model under-estimation of wind stress.