Seasonal Variation and Temporal–Spatial Scale Dependence of Air–Sea Relationship

This study aims to review the seasonality and temporal-spatial scale dependence of air–sea relationship based on the recent analyses of the relationship between surface turbulent heat flux and sea surface temperature. The contents include the representation, regional change, seasonal change, and temporal and spatial scale variation of surface turbulent heat flux–sea surface temperature relationship and the relative contributions of surface wind speed and sea–air humidity difference to changes in the surface latent heat flux–sea surface temperature relationship. The surface turbulent heat flux–sea surface temperature relationship shows considerable differences between the mid-latitude oceanic frontal zones and subtropical gyre regions. In the mid-latitude oceanic frontal zones, the oceanic process is the main contributor to sea surface temperature variations, indicating an oceanic effect that is stronger in winter than in summer. In the subtropical gyre regions, surface turbulent heat flux plays a major role in sea surface temperature variations, indicating an atmospheric forcing, which is more obvious in summer than in winter. In the western Arabian Sea, the oceanic process has an obvious influence on sea surface temperature variations in summer, indicating oceanic forcing. By contrast, the surface turbulent heat flux has a major influence in winter, which is indicative of atmospheric forcing. In the Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, and Philippine Sea, a significant atmospheric forcing occurs in winter and summer. In the mid-latitude ocean frontal zones during winter and the western Arabian Sea during summer, the oceanic forcing increases with the time scale, whereas in the other regions and seasons, a transition from atmospheric forcing in shorter time scales to oceanic forcing in longer time scales with a transition time scale of approximately 20–40 days is observed. In the mid-latitude oceanic frontal zones, oceanic forcing decreases with an increase in the spatial scale and switches to atmospheric forcing with a shorter spatial scale transition in summer than in winter. Moreover, atmospheric forcing usually increases with the spatial scale.