On fluctuating air-sea-interaction in local models: linear theory

Abstract. The dynamics of three local linear models of air sea-interation commonly employed in climate or ocean simulations is compared. The models differ by whether or not the ocean velocity is included in the shear calculation applied to the ocean and the atmosphere. Analytic calculations for the models with deteministic and random forcing (white and colored) are presented. The short term behavior is similar in all models, which only small quantitative differences, while the longterm behavior differs qualitatively between the models. The fluctuation-dissipation-relation, which connects the fast excitation to the slow dissipation, is establised for all models with random forcing. The fluctuation-dissipation-theorem, which compares the response to an external forcing to internal fluctuations is established for a white-noise forcing and a colored forcing when the phase space is augmented by the forcing variable. Using results from numerical integrations of stochastic differential equations shows that the fluctuation-theorem, which compares the probability of positive to negative fluxes of the same magnitude, averaged over time-intervals of varying length, holds for the energy gained by the ocean from the atmosphere.