Gulf Stream Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies Associated With the Extratropical Transition of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

Abstract This study investigates Gulf Stream (GS) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with the extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic. Composites of western North Atlantic TCs indicate that GS SSTs are warmer, and both large‐ and fine‐scale SST...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Evan Jones, Rhys Parfitt, Allison A. Wing, Robert Hart
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023
Subjects:
extratropical transition
western boundary current
sea surface temperatures
tropical cyclones
frontogenesis
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL102904
https://doaj.org/article/ec0fa163563945928636efc805e9f06b
Description
Summary:Abstract This study investigates Gulf Stream (GS) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies associated with the extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the North Atlantic. Composites of western North Atlantic TCs indicate that GS SSTs are warmer, and both large‐ and fine‐scale SST gradients are weaker than average, for TCs that begin the ET process but do not complete it, compared with TCs that do. Further analysis suggests that the associated fine‐scale GS SST gradient anomalies are related to atmospheric processes but not the same as those that are typically associated with the onset of ET. As sensible heat flux gradients and surface diabatic frontogenesis are shown to generally scale with the local SST gradient strength, these results suggest that knowledge of the fine‐scale GS SST gradient in the weeks prior to the arrival of a TC might potentially provide additional information regarding the likelihood of that system completing ET.

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