Evaluation of several meteorological models by comparison with qualified Air-Sea observations

Meteorological models are important simulation tools to improve our understanding of the climate behavior on seasonal, annual, decadal and centennial scales. Their complexity has increased considerably since 1990. The output fieds of several widely available meteorological such as GFS, ECMWF, WRF, ARPEGE and MERRA are evaluated, by comparing the output fields to in situ data performed during six campaigns with the wave-following platform OCARINA (Ocean Coupled with the Atmosphere, Research on the Interface on Annex Ship) developed at MIO. Following a recent comparison for wind and SST by Benjeddou et al. (2024), emphasis will now be laid on the comparison of heat fluxes and associated bulk variables, in open sea conditions, versus close to the shore line.