TY - JOUR
T1 - Disentangling the Mesoscale Ocean-Atmosphere Interactions
AU - Renault, L.
AU - Masson, S.
AU - Oerder, V.
AU - Jullien, S.
AU - Colas, F.
N1 - Funding Information:
We appreciate support from the National Science Foundation (OCE-1419450). This work used the GENCI-TGCC computing resources GENCI-TGCC (grant 2017-0106895 2018-0106895 A0050107298) and the Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). This work benefited from developments done during the PULSATION ANR-11-MONU-0010 project of the French National Research Agency (ANR). V. Oerder was funded by FONDECYT postdoctoral project 3180472. The authors thank Dudley Chelton, Larry O'Neill, Bertrand Chapron, and Abderrahim Bentamy for useful discussions. The authors want to thank two anonymous reviewers and Dudley Chelton for their comments. Data can be downloaded from this website (https://tinyurl.com/ycb7ob6k).
Publisher Copyright:
©2019. The Authors.
PY - 2019/3
Y1 - 2019/3
N2 - In the decades, the use of scatterometer data allowed to demonstrate the global ubiquity of the ocean mesoscale thermal feedback (TFB) and current feedback (CFB) effects on surface winds and stress. Understanding these air-sea interactions is of uttermost importance as the induced atmospheric anomalies partly control the ocean circulation and thus can influence the Earth climate. Whether the TFB and CFB effects can be disentangled, and whether satellite scatterometers can properly reveal them, remain rather unclear. Here, using satellite observations and ocean-atmosphere coupled mesoscale simulations over 45°S to 45°N, we show that the CFB effect can be properly characterized and unraveled from that due to the TFB. We demonstrate that the TFB can be unambiguously characterized by its effect on the stress (and wind) divergence and magnitude. However, its effect on the wind and stress curl is contaminated by the CFB and thus cannot be estimated from scatterometer data. Finally, because scatterometers provide equivalent neutral stability winds relative to the oceanic currents, they cannot characterize adequately the CFB wind response and overestimate the TFB wind response by ≈25%. Surface stress appears to be the more appropriate variable to consider from scatterometer data.
AB - In the decades, the use of scatterometer data allowed to demonstrate the global ubiquity of the ocean mesoscale thermal feedback (TFB) and current feedback (CFB) effects on surface winds and stress. Understanding these air-sea interactions is of uttermost importance as the induced atmospheric anomalies partly control the ocean circulation and thus can influence the Earth climate. Whether the TFB and CFB effects can be disentangled, and whether satellite scatterometers can properly reveal them, remain rather unclear. Here, using satellite observations and ocean-atmosphere coupled mesoscale simulations over 45°S to 45°N, we show that the CFB effect can be properly characterized and unraveled from that due to the TFB. We demonstrate that the TFB can be unambiguously characterized by its effect on the stress (and wind) divergence and magnitude. However, its effect on the wind and stress curl is contaminated by the CFB and thus cannot be estimated from scatterometer data. Finally, because scatterometers provide equivalent neutral stability winds relative to the oceanic currents, they cannot characterize adequately the CFB wind response and overestimate the TFB wind response by ≈25%. Surface stress appears to be the more appropriate variable to consider from scatterometer data.
KW - coupled models
KW - coupling coefficients
KW - current feedback
KW - mesoscale-air-sea-interactions
KW - scatterometters
KW - thermal feedback
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85063692028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2018JC014628
DO - 10.1029/2018JC014628
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85063692028
VL - 124
SP - 2164
EP - 2178
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
SN - 2169-9275
IS - 3
ER -