The Effective Drag Coefficient for Evaluating Wind Stress over the Oceans

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Abstract
Computations of the surface wind stress and pseudostress over the global oceans have been made using surface winds from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts for 7 years. The drag coefficient is a function of wind speed and atmospheric stability, and the air density is computed for each observation. Assuming a constant density, the effective drag coefficient required to convert the pseudostress into a stress has been computed for each month of the year using several methods. Because the drag coefficient varies from day-to-day and with the seasons, the effective drag coefficient cannot be uniquely defined and is a useful concept if only the very gross characteristics of the field are of interest and errors of the order of 10% are tolerable. Even then, the spatial and seasonal variations in CD must be taken into amount, and occasionally the wind stress may be greatly in error.

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