TY - JOUR
T1 - Atmospheric response to mesoscale ocean eddies in the Maritime Continent
AU - Aslam, Ashar A.
AU - Schwendike, Juliane
AU - Peatman, Simon C.
AU - Matthews, Adrian J.
AU - Birch, Cathryn E.
AU - Bollasina, Massimo A.
AU - Barrett, Paul A.
AU - Azaneu, Marina V. C.
N1 - Data Availability Statement: Data sets used in this research are available through the following links: ERA5 (https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/, last accessed on 13 Feb 2024) and DUACS AVISO ADT (https://marine.copernicus.eu/, last accessed on 7 Feb 2024). Documentation regarding the py-eddy-tracker algorithm of Mason et al. (2014) can be found through the following Zenodo link (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7197432, courtesy of Delepoulle et al. (2022), last accessed on 7 Feb 2024).
Funding Information: Aslam was funded by NERC through a SENSE CDT studentship (NE/T00039X/1). Schwendike was partially funded by the Forecasting for Southeast Asia (FORSEA) project, funded by the Met Office Weather and Climate Science for Service Partnership (WCSSP) Southeast Asia, as part of the Newton Fund. Peatman and Birch were funded through the TerraMaris project (NE/R016739/1). Matthews was partially funded through the TerraMaris project (NE/R016704/1).
PY - 2025/2/13
Y1 - 2025/2/13
N2 - Mesoscale ocean eddies contribute to the mixing and transport of water properties throughout the global ocean. Sea surface temperature anomalies associated with these eddies can influence atmospheric boundary layer stability, and thus the formation of clouds. The Maritime Continent experiences the modulation of convection and precipitation by processes operating over multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, mesoscale air-sea interactions, such as those associated with the eddies the region generates, remain understudied. Applying a sea surface height-based eddy detection and tracking algorithm, we show that lower-latitude eddies, such as those in the Maritime Continent, are generally fewer in number, weaker and shorter-lived, but larger and faster-propagating, compared to those at higher-latitudes. Crucially, we highlight that eddies in the Maritime Continent can significantly modify air-sea heat exchange and the near-surface wind field. However, changes to column water vapour, cloud and rainfall are less distinct. Compared to the Kuroshio Extension, a representative case study for the extratropics, atmospheric anomalies associated with eddies in the Maritime Continent are weaker, and decreasing in magnitude towards the lower-latitudes. We hypothesise that weaker sea surface temperature anomalies associated with, and faster propagation of, eddies in the Maritime Continent, coupled with intraseasonal variability in convection over the region, reduce the likelihood and intensity of the instantaneous atmospheric imprint. This study therefore emphasises the importance of the spatial and temporal scales with regards to air-sea interactions and their influence on cloud and rainfall across the Maritime Continent.
AB - Mesoscale ocean eddies contribute to the mixing and transport of water properties throughout the global ocean. Sea surface temperature anomalies associated with these eddies can influence atmospheric boundary layer stability, and thus the formation of clouds. The Maritime Continent experiences the modulation of convection and precipitation by processes operating over multiple spatial and temporal scales. However, mesoscale air-sea interactions, such as those associated with the eddies the region generates, remain understudied. Applying a sea surface height-based eddy detection and tracking algorithm, we show that lower-latitude eddies, such as those in the Maritime Continent, are generally fewer in number, weaker and shorter-lived, but larger and faster-propagating, compared to those at higher-latitudes. Crucially, we highlight that eddies in the Maritime Continent can significantly modify air-sea heat exchange and the near-surface wind field. However, changes to column water vapour, cloud and rainfall are less distinct. Compared to the Kuroshio Extension, a representative case study for the extratropics, atmospheric anomalies associated with eddies in the Maritime Continent are weaker, and decreasing in magnitude towards the lower-latitudes. We hypothesise that weaker sea surface temperature anomalies associated with, and faster propagation of, eddies in the Maritime Continent, coupled with intraseasonal variability in convection over the region, reduce the likelihood and intensity of the instantaneous atmospheric imprint. This study therefore emphasises the importance of the spatial and temporal scales with regards to air-sea interactions and their influence on cloud and rainfall across the Maritime Continent.
U2 - 10.1029/2024JD042606
DO - 10.1029/2024JD042606
M3 - Article
SN - 2169-897X
VL - 130
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
IS - 4
M1 - e2024JD042606
ER -