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

• 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

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.