Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Offshore Decay Scale of Cold SST Signals along Upwelling Eastern Boundaries
Abstract
A simple analytic model is developed to represent the offshore decay of cold sea surface temperature (SST) signals that originate from wind-driven upwelling at a coastal boundary. The model couples an oceanic mixed layer to an atmospheric boundary layer through wind stress and air–sea heat exchange. The primary mechanism that controls SST is a balance between Ekman advection and air–sea exchange. The offshore penetration of the cold SST signal decays exponentially with a length scale that is the product of the ocean Ekman velocity and a time scale derived from the air–sea heat flux and the radiative balance in the atmospheric boundary layer. This cold SST signal imprints on the atmosphere in terms of both the boundary layer temperature and surface wind. Nonlinearities due to the feedback between SST and atmospheric wind, baroclinic instability, and thermal wind in the atmospheric boundary layer all slightly modify this linear theory. The decay scales diagnosed from two-dimensional and three-dimensional eddy-resolving numerical ocean models are in close agreement with the theory, demonstrating that the basic physics represented by the theory remain dominant even in these more complete systems. Analysis of climatological SST off the west coast of the United States also shows a decaymore »
- Authors:
-
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst., Woods Hole, MA (United States)
- Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1537007
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0006766
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Climate
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 29; Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Citation Formats
Spall, Michael A., and Schneider, Niklas. Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Offshore Decay Scale of Cold SST Signals along Upwelling Eastern Boundaries. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1175/jcli-d-16-0109.1.
Spall, Michael A., & Schneider, Niklas. Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Offshore Decay Scale of Cold SST Signals along Upwelling Eastern Boundaries. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-16-0109.1
Spall, Michael A., and Schneider, Niklas. Thu .
"Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Offshore Decay Scale of Cold SST Signals along Upwelling Eastern Boundaries". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-16-0109.1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1537007.
@article{osti_1537007,
title = {Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Offshore Decay Scale of Cold SST Signals along Upwelling Eastern Boundaries},
author = {Spall, Michael A. and Schneider, Niklas},
abstractNote = {A simple analytic model is developed to represent the offshore decay of cold sea surface temperature (SST) signals that originate from wind-driven upwelling at a coastal boundary. The model couples an oceanic mixed layer to an atmospheric boundary layer through wind stress and air–sea heat exchange. The primary mechanism that controls SST is a balance between Ekman advection and air–sea exchange. The offshore penetration of the cold SST signal decays exponentially with a length scale that is the product of the ocean Ekman velocity and a time scale derived from the air–sea heat flux and the radiative balance in the atmospheric boundary layer. This cold SST signal imprints on the atmosphere in terms of both the boundary layer temperature and surface wind. Nonlinearities due to the feedback between SST and atmospheric wind, baroclinic instability, and thermal wind in the atmospheric boundary layer all slightly modify this linear theory. The decay scales diagnosed from two-dimensional and three-dimensional eddy-resolving numerical ocean models are in close agreement with the theory, demonstrating that the basic physics represented by the theory remain dominant even in these more complete systems. Analysis of climatological SST off the west coast of the United States also shows a decay of the cold SST anomaly with scale roughly in agreement with the theory.},
doi = {10.1175/jcli-d-16-0109.1},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
number = 23,
volume = 29,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Nov 03 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Nov 03 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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Works referencing / citing this record:
Reductions in Strong Upwelling‐Favorable Wind Events in the Pliocene
journal, December 2019
- Li, Zhiyuan; Luo, Yangcheng; Arnold, Nathan
- Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, Vol. 34, Issue 12