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- Title
Midlatitude mesoscale thermal Air-sea interaction enhanced by greenhouse warming.
- Authors
Ma, Xiaohui; Zhang, Xingzhi; Wu, Lixin; Tang, Zhili; Yang, Peiran; Song, Fengfei; Jing, Zhao; Chen, Hui; Qu, Yushan; Yuan, Man; Chen, Zhaohui; Gan, Bolan
- Abstract
The influence of greenhouse warming on mesoscale air-sea interactions, crucial for modulating ocean circulation and climate variability, remains largely unexplored due to the limited resolution of current climate models. Additionally, there is a lack of theoretical frameworks for assessing changes in mesoscale coupling due to warming. Here, we address these gaps by analyzing eddy-resolving high-resolution climate simulations and observations, focusing on the mesoscale thermal interaction dominated by mesoscale sea surface temperature (SST) and latent heat flux (LHF) coupling in winter. Our findings reveal a consistent increase in mesoscale SST-LHF coupling in the major western boundary current regions under warming, characterized by a heightened nonlinearity between warm and cold eddies and a more pronounced enhancement in the northern hemisphere. To understand the dynamics, we develop a theoretical framework that links mesoscale thermal coupling changes to large-scale factors, which indicates that the projected changes are collectively determined by historical background wind, SST, and the rate of SST warming. Among these factors, the large-scale SST and its warming rate are the primary drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in mesoscale coupling intensification. This study introduces a simplified approach for assessing the projected mesoscale thermal coupling changes in a warming world. This study shows that greenhouse warming intensifies mesoscale thermal coupling in western boundary currents, primarily driven by large-scale sea surface temperature and its warming rate, with key implications for ocean circulation and climate variability.
- Subjects
OCEAN temperature; COUPLINGS (Gearing); LATENT heat; HEAT flux; ATMOSPHERIC models
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2024, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-024-52077-z