Mesoscale Air-Sea Interaction and Its Role in Eddy Energy Dissipation in the Kuroshio Extension Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • ABSTRACT Using the high-resolution Community Earth System Model (CESM) output, this study investigates airsea interaction and its role in eddy energy dissipation in the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region. Based on an eddy energetics analysis, it is found that the baroclinic pathway associated with temperature variability is the main eddy energy source in this region. Both the airsea heat flux and wind stress act as eddy killers that remove energy from oceanic eddies. Heat exchange between atmosphere and oceanic eddies dominates the dissipation of eddy temperature variance within the surface layer and accounts for 36% of the total dissipation in the upper 350-m layer. Compared to the heat exchange, the role of wind power in damping the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) is relatively small. Only 18% of EKE dissipation in the upper 350 m is attributed to eddy wind power. Misrepresentation of the damping role of mesoscale oceanatmosphere interaction can result in an incorrect vertical structure of eddy energy dissipation, leading to an erroneous representation of vertical mixing in the interior ocean.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF CLIMATE

altmetric score

  • 1.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Yang, H., Chang, P., Qui, B. o., Zhang, Q., Wu, L., Chen, Z., & Wang, H.

citation count

  • 15

complete list of authors

  • Yang, Haiyuan||Chang, Ping||Qui, Bo||Zhang, Qiuying||Wu, Lixin||Chen, Zhaohui||Wang, Hong

publication date

  • December 2019