Stimulated by the results of a simple SST anomaly experiment with the ECMWF forecast model, a study was carried out to examine the model parameterization of evaporation from the tropica] oceans. In earlier versions of the model, these fluxes were parameterized with neutral transfer coefficients in accordance with the Charnock relation with equal coefficients for momentum, heat, and moisture. Stability correction was applied using Monin-Obukhov theory. This parameterization resulted in an extremely weak coupling between atmosphere and ocean at wind speeds below 5 m s−1. The transfer coefficients for heat and moisture have now been modified for low wind speeds to bring them in accordance with the empirical scaling law for free convedion. It is shown that these revisions to the transfer coefficients at very low wind speeds (1) have a dramatic positive impact on almost all aspects of the model's simulation of the tropics. These include much improved seasonal rainfall distributions (with the virtual elimination of a tendency to generate a double ITCZ in both winter and summer), a much improved Indian monsoon circulation, and substantially reduced tropical systematic errors. The model previously had an eagerly bias in the zonal-mean upper tropical tropospheric flow with a corresponding cold bias in the deep tropics; it is shown that the flux revision substantially reduces this. Furthermore, the revision to the fluxes greatly enhances the model's ability to represent interannual and intraseasonal variability (see also the companion paper by Palmer et al.).