9C.2 Synthesis of major results from the Coupled Boundary Layer Air-Sea Transfer Experiment (CBLAST) in hurricanes (2003-2004)

CBLAST was an effort conceived by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to fill a gap in our understanding of air-sea transfer processes at extreme wind conditions. Developed under an Accelerated research Initiative, CBLAST Hurricane was conceived to improve understanding of air-sea flux processes in extreme hurricane wind conditions. It was widely recognized that approximation of air-sea flux of momentum and enthalpy (heat and moisture) by bulk aerodynamic formulas involving exchange coefficients was well established only for winds slightly in excess of gale, i.e. tropical storm, force (17 m/s). Dependence of the drag coefficient and enthalpy exchange coefficient on wind speed was only well established to winds of 20 m/s (Large and Pond, 1976; Smith, 1980; Fairall et al