3) The standard deviations of the SST anomalies in the HadISST1.1 dataset are 0.2–0.4°C smaller prior to 1949 than after 1949. This nonstationarity could complicate interpretations of the long HadISST1.1 data record for some studies of climate variability. It is likely attributable mostly to the improved sampling of SST observations...
Three mechanisms for self-induced Ekman pumping in the interiors of mesoscale ocean eddies are investigated.
The first arises from the surface stress that occurs because of differences between surface wind and
ocean velocities, resulting in Ekman upwelling and downwelling in the cores of anticyclones and cyclones,
respectively. The second mechanism...
Eddies can influence biogeochemical cycles through a variety of mechanisms, including the excitation of vertical velocities and the horizontal advection of nutrients and ecosystems, both around the eddy periphery by rotational currents and by the trapping of fluid and subsequent transport by the eddy. In this study, we present an...
The wind speed response to mesoscale SST variability is investigated over the Agulhas Return Current region of the Southern Ocean using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model and the U.S. Navy Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System (COAMPS) atmospheric model. The SST-induced wind response is assessed from eight simulations with...
Considerable effort is presently being devoted to producing high-resolution sea surface temperature (SST) analyses with a goal of spatial grid resolutions as low as 1 km. Because grid resolution is not the same as feature resolution, a method is needed to objectively determine the resolution capability and accuracy of SST...
The responses of surface wind and wind stress to spatial variations of sea surface temperature (SST) are investigated using satellite observations of the surface wind from the Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) and SST from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (EOS) (AMSR-E)...
This paper examines the effect of “stencil width” on surface ocean geostrophic velocity and vorticity estimated from differentiating gridded satellite altimeter sea surface height products. In oceanographic applications, the value of the first derivative at a central grid point is generally obtained by differencing the sea surface heights at adjacent...
Eddy detection and tracking algorithms are applied to both satellite altimetry and a
high‐resolution (dx = 5 km) climatological model solution of the U.S. West Coast to study
the properties of surface and undercurrent eddies in the California Current System.
Eddy properties show remarkable similarity in space and time, and...
The long-term evolution of initially Gaussian eddies is studied in a reduced-gravity shallow-water model using both linear and nonlinear quasigeostrophic theory in an attempt to understand westward-propagating mesoscale eddies observed and tracked by satellite altimetry. By examining both isolated eddies and a large basin seeded with eddies with statistical characteristics...
Previously unaddressed aspects of how equatorial currents affect long Rossby wave phase speeds are investigated using solutions of the shallow-water equations linearized about quasi-realistic currents. Modification of the background potential vorticity (PV) gradient by curvature in the narrow equatorial currents is shown to play a role comparable to the Doppler...