Journal ArticleDOI
Imprint of Southern Ocean eddies on winds, clouds and rainfall
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In this article, the authors examined the atmospheric conditions associated with over 600,000 individual eddies in the Southern Ocean, using satellite data, and showed that ocean eddies locally affect near-surface wind, cloud properties and rainfall.Abstract:
Owing to the turbulent nature of the ocean, mesoscale eddies are omnipresent. The impact of these transitory and approximately circular sea surface temperature fronts on the overlying atmosphere is not well known. Stationary fronts such as the Gulf Stream have been reported to lead to pronounced atmospheric changes1, 2. However, the impact of transient ocean eddies on the atmosphere has not been determined systematically, except on winds and to some extent clouds3, 4, 5, 6. Here, we examine the atmospheric conditions associated with over 600,000 individual eddies in the Southern Ocean, using satellite data. We show that ocean eddies locally affect near-surface wind, cloud properties and rainfall. The observed pattern of atmospheric change is consistent with a mechanism in which sea surface temperature anomalies associated with the oceanic eddies modify turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer. In the case of cyclonic eddies, this modification triggers a slackening of near-surface winds, a decline in cloud fraction and water content, and a reduction in rainfall. We conclude that transient mesoscale ocean structures can significantly affect much larger atmospheric low-pressure systems that swiftly pass by at the latitudes investigated.read more
Citations
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An analytical study of the atmospheric boundary-layer flow and divergence over an SST front
TL;DR: In this paper, an analytical model reproducing literature-based numerical simulations of the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer (MABL) over a Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) front, with wind blowing from the cold to the warm side, is presented.
Journal ArticleDOI
Overestimated Eddy Kinetic Energy in the Eddy‐Rich Regions Simulated by Eddy‐Resolving Global Ocean–Sea Ice Models
TL;DR: In this article , the performance of eddy-resolving global ocean-sea ice models in simulating mesoscale eddies is evaluated using six experiments forced by different atmospheric reanalysis products.
Journal ArticleDOI
Why Do Inverse Eddy Surface Temperature Anomalies Emerge? The Case of the Mediterranean Sea
TL;DR: In this article , the emergence of these inverse anomalies is a seasonal phenomenon that affects the life cycle of mesoscale eddies in the Mediterranean Sea and they use remote sensing observations and in situ data to analyse the eddy-induced SST anomaly over a 3-year period (2016-2018).
Journal ArticleDOI
Weak Mesoscale Variability in the Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST)-AVHRR-Only Version 2 Data before 2007
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors detect an abrupt enhancement of mesoscale SST variability after 2007 in the OISST-AVHRR-only version 2 and version 2.1 datasets.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climatic Effects of Spring Mesoscale Oceanic Eddies in the North Pacific: A Regional Modeling Study
TL;DR: In this article, a high-resolution atmospheric model of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) is used to investigate the climatic effects of mesoscale oceanic eddies (OEs) in the North Pacific (NPac) in spring and the respective effects of OEs in the northern NPac associated with the Kuroshio Extension (KE) and in the southern NPac related to the subtropical countercurrent.
References
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Horizontal dispersion of floatable particles in the vicinity of velocity singularities such as convergences
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A well‐calibrated ocean algorithm for special sensor microwave / imager
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe an algorithm for retrieving geophysical parameters over the ocean from special sensor microwave/imager (SSM/I) observations, based on a model for the brightness temperature T(sub B) of the ocean and intervening atmosphere.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ocean Circulation Kinetic Energy: Reservoirs, Sources, and Sinks
Raffaele Ferrari,Carl Wunsch +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the physically different kinetic energy (KE) reservoirs of the circulation and their maintenance, dissipation, and possible influence on the very small scales representing irreversible molecular mixing.