.. +
..
.. DESCRIPTION
.. ===========
..
.. overview
..
.. TODO
.. ====
..
.. outline overview vs home/index
..
.. EVOLUTIONS
.. ==========
..
.. $Id$
..
.. $URL$
..
.. - fplod 20121221T174433Z cratos.locean-ipsl.upmc.fr (Linux)
..
..   * introducing update until July 2012 included
..
..
.. - jv 20120229
..
..   * Mention LOCEAN in last sentence
..
.. - fplod 20120223
..
..   * typo
..
.. - fplod 20120222
..
..   * links and associated text are now defined in :ref:`prolog.rst`
..
.. - jv 20120222
..
..   * correct a few typos
..
..
.. - jv    20120221
..
..   * correct a few typos
..
.. - fplod 20120219
..
..   * modif according to overview.odt provided by jv
..   * cut long lines
..
..
.. - fplod 20120208
..
..   * replace 1989 by 1979 and 2010, by sept 2011
..
.. - fplod 20110623T160124Z aedon.locean-ipsl.upmc.fr (Darwin)
..
..   * add JV text
..
.. - fplod 20110407T083446Z aedon.locean-ipsl.upmc.fr (Darwin)
..
..   * creation (draft) from networkx/networkx/doc/source/overview
..
.. -

.. _overview:

Overview
========

The TropFlux project aims at providing daily, timely, accurate air-sea heat
and momentum flux data for the entire 30°N-30°S region.

Wind stresses and the four components of net surface heat flux are currently
available for the entire 1979 to March 2013 period.
We are currently working on a regular (~monthly) update of the
TropFlux product until 3-4 months behind realtime.

TropFlux is largely derived from a combination of
|erai|_
re-analysis data for turbulent and longwave fluxes, and
|isccp|_
surface radiation data for shortwave flux.
All input products are bias- and amplitude-corrected on the basis of
|gtma|_
data, before surface net heat flux and wind stresses are computed using the
|coare|_.
A precise description of the flux computation procedure, as well as a
detailed evaluation against other timely, daily air-sea heat flux
alternatives (OAFLUX, NCEP, NCEP2, ERA-I) is provided in
|pkbetal2012|_.
The wind stress product is described, evaluated and compared against other
widely used products (QuikSCAT, NCEP, NCEP2, ERA-I) in
|pkbetal2013|_

We believe that this product offers the following advantages:

 - better variability and less biases than re-analysis fluxes (and equivalent
   or slightly better than the best performing products:
   |oaflux|_ for heat fluxes and
   |erai|_
   for wind stresses) ,
 - available until March 2013, and soon updated every month, lagging
   realtime by ~3 months,
 - a simple estimate of surface shortwave radiation is provided from OLR
   data, as a near-realtime alternative to the more accurate but irregularly
   updated ISCCP data.

The TropFlux product has been developed under a collaboration between the
`Laboratoire d'Océanographie: Expérimentation et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN) <http://www.locean-ipsl.upmc.fr/>`_ from
`Institut Pierre Simon Laplace <http://www.ipsl.fr/>`_, France and
`National Institute of Oceanography/CSIR <http://www.nio.org/>`_, India.
Bilateral scientific visits to France and India have been supported by
`Institut de Recherche pour le Développement <http://www.ird.fr/>`_, France.