Harmony will provide kilometer-scale surface roughness, root mean squared slopes, and surface kinematics, in different viewing perspectives, reflecting the imprint of Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) eddies on the ocean surface. This provides information about both the surface wind vector, as well as surface current vectors and swell, and, importantly, the thermal disequilibrium between air and ocean.
This will lead to a more precise understanding of small-scale (submesoscale) impacts on air–sea fluxes, especially CO2 fluxes, momentum, ocean heat uptake and overall energy pathways, to reduce uncertainties for lateral dispersion of pollutants and tracers, vertical transport and nutrient pumping.
ed by the current generation models.
Specifically, Harmony’s very high-resolution capabilities aim at:
- Extend the knowledge of the 2D co-spectra of surface stress and wind, surface currents, and SST from scatterometric scales (25km) down to O(1km) scales.
- Quantify the contribution of small scale processes (down to O(1 km) scales) to the air-sea fluxes of gas (CO2), momentum, and heat.
- Quantify the vertical fluxes within the MABL at 1km horizontal scale.
- Measure surface stress equivalent wind vectors at 1 km scale in extreme wind conditions.
- Retrieve directional wave spectra and simultaneous near inertial currents at 5-10km resolution, during all phases (ahead, during, and in the wake) of the passage of the extreme weather event.
- Extend the knowledge of the ocean surface motion power spectrum from currently resolved mesoscales (O(50km)) down to submesoscales (O(1-10km)), capturing regional and seasonal variabilities.
- Quantify the vorticity and flow divergence in the upper ocean at O(1km) horizontal scale, to estimate vertical fluxes across the ocean boundary layer.