Measuring turbulent heat fluxes over leads using kites

During the MaudNESS project in the austral winter of 2005, radiosondes attached to a kite indirectly measured surface turbulent heat fluxes from leads in the Eastern Weddell Sea near Maud Rise. Kite flights over two different leads with similar widths and upwind ice conditions are discussed. Lead mean surface fluxes were estimated by measuring the excess temperature and humidity downwind of the leads, estimating the wind speed profiles and performing a heat and moisture budget quantification. The measured sensible (latent) heat fluxes were 318 Wm −2 (158 Wm −2 ) and 258 Wm −2 (85 Wm −2 ) for the two flights; the values were lower in the second flight due to lower wind speeds. The average neutral sensible heat transfer coefficients for the two flights was (1.48 ± 0.13) × 10 −3 , and the average neutral latent heat flux coefficient was (1.47 ± 0.09) × 10 −3 . As expected, these values are enhanced from what would be expected in a typical open ocean situation with the same air‐sea temperature and humidity differences. Kite radiosonde profile measurements are an economically viable method for measuring lead heat fluxes that avoid many of the logistical problems associated with other methods for measuring fluxes over leads.