AIR-SEA FLUXES - 25 YEARS OF PROGRESS

During the past quarter century the study of air-sea interaction has e volved from a small branch of marine climatology to play a key role in the modelling of the coupled system of ocean and atmosphere. Knowledg e of air-sea fluxes has grown, based on Monin-Obukhov similarity theor y for surface boundary layers and on direct and indirect techniques of measuring the fluxes. This has been the basis for providing boundary conditions needed to couple atmospheric and oceanic circulation models that are used to forecast weather and climate. An overview of current understanding is followed by a discussion of parameterisation schemes and a chronicle of some of the experimental work that has tested theo ries and quantified their conclusions.