.. + .. .. .. TODO .. ==== .. .. outline overvieuw vs home .. .. EVOLUTIONS .. ========== .. .. - 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 flux data for the entire 30°N-30°S region. The four components of net surface heat flux are currently available for the entire 1989-2010 period. We are currently working on a regular (~monthly) update of the TropFLux product until 3-4 months behind realtime, which should be available by 2012. TropFlux is largely derived from a combination of `ERA-I `_ re-analysis data for turbulent and longwave fluxes, and `ISCCP `_ surface radiation data for the shortwave flux. All input products are bias- and amplitude-corrected on the basis of `Global Tropical Moored Array `_ data, before surface net heat flux is computed using the `COARE v3 bulk algorithm `_. 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 `Praveen Kumar et al. (2011) `_. We believe that this product offers the following advantages: - better variability and less biases than re-analysis fluxes (and equivalent performance to OAFLUX) - available until the end of 2010, 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 `Institut Pierre Simon Laplace `_, France and `National Institute of Oceanography `_, India.