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Observed oceanic feedback to the atmosphere over the Kuroshio Extension during spring time and its possible mechanism

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  • Atmospheric Sciences
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Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

High-resolution satellite measurements are used to study the air-sea interaction over the Kuroshio Extension (KE) region during spring time. There are two oceanic fronts in the KE region off the east coast of Japan. These fronts are generally associated with strong ocean currents, which may display unstable meander, resulting in remarkable warm sea surface temperature (SST) ridges and cold SST troughs. Analyses of these satellite observations reveal a significantly positive correlation between sea surface wind speed and its underlying SST along these fronts. This positive SST-wind correlation becomes even more significant when strong meanders occur along the fronts. This positive SST-wind correlation indicates an ocean-to-atmosphere feedback over the KE region during spring time. A high-resolution regional atmospheric model is used to investigate the atmospheric response to SST changes along the two fronts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster, and College of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    HaiMing Xu, LinWei Wang & JinHai He

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  1. HaiMing Xu
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  2. LinWei Wang
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  3. JinHai He
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Correspondence to HaiMing Xu.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40575045), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2006CB403607), and COPES (Grant No. GYHY200706005)

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Xu, H., Wang, L. & He, J. Observed oceanic feedback to the atmosphere over the Kuroshio Extension during spring time and its possible mechanism. Chin. Sci. Bull. 53, 1905–1912 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-008-0138-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-008-0138-3

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