Phys.org July 22. 2024
An international team of researchers (India, Japan) simulated Interannual sea surface temperature (SST) variations in the subtropical-midlatitude Southern Hemisphere which are often associated with a circumpolar wavenumber-4 (W4) pattern. They found that incoming climatological solar radiation goes into a thinner (thicker) mixed layer, the shallower (deeper) mixed layer promotes surface warming (cooling) leading to positive (negative) SST anomalies, developing the SST-W4 pattern during austral summer. Due to the temperature difference between the mixed layer and the water below the mixed layer, anomalous latent heat fluxes, and disappearance of the overlying atmospheric W4 pattern cause the decay of the SST-W4 pattern during austral autumn. According to the researchers their results indicate that accurate simulation of the atmospheric forcing and the associated atmosphere-ocean interaction is essential to capture the SST-W4 pattern in coupled models… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
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