Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth
Subseasonal surface wind variability strongly impacts the annual mean and subseasonal turbulent atmospheric surface fluxes. However, the impacts of subseasonal wind variability on the ocean are not fully understood. Here, we quantify the sensitivity of the ocean surface stress (), buoyancy flux (B),...
Published in: | Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
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Language: | English |
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2019
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015166 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_23136 2024-04-28T08:37:58+00:00 Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth Whitt, Daniel B. (author) Nicholson, S. A. (author) Carranza, Magdalena M. (author) 2019-12-11 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015166 en eng Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans--J. Geophys. Res. Oceans--2169-9275--2169-9291 danielwhitt/globalimpacts_2019_whittetal: with monthly MLD climatology, for resubmission to JGR--10.5281/zenodo.3360082 articles:23136 ark:/85065/d7sq93ks doi:10.1029/2019JC015166 Copyright 2020 American Geophysical Union. article Text 2019 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015166 2024-04-04T17:32:42Z Subseasonal surface wind variability strongly impacts the annual mean and subseasonal turbulent atmospheric surface fluxes. However, the impacts of subseasonal wind variability on the ocean are not fully understood. Here, we quantify the sensitivity of the ocean surface stress (), buoyancy flux (B), and mixed layer depth (MLD) to subseasonal wind variability in both a one-dimensional (1-D) vertical column model and a three-dimensional (3-D) global mesoscale-resolving ocean/sea ice model. The winds are smoothed by time filtering the pseudo-stresses, so the mean stress is approximately unchanged, and some important surface flux feedbacks are retained. The 1-D results quantify the sensitivities to wind variability at different time scales from 120 days to 1 day at a few sites. The 3-D results quantify the sensitivities to wind variability shorter than 60 days at all locations, and comparisons between 1-D and 3-D results highlight the importance of 3-D ocean dynamics. Globally, subseasonal winds explain virtually all of subseasonal variance, about half of subseasonal B variance but only a quarter of subseasonal MLD variance. Subseasonal winds also explain about a fifth of the annual mean MLD and a similar and spatially correlated fraction of the mean friction velocity, u*=|tau|/rho sw where rho(sw) is the density of seawater. Hence, the subseasonal MLD variance is relatively insensitive to subseasonal winds despite their strong impact on local B and variability, but the mean MLD is relatively sensitive to subseasonal winds to the extent that they modify the mean u(*), and both of these sensitivities are modified by 3-D ocean dynamics. 1852977 NA18OAR4310408 1501993 1658541 Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 124 12 8798 8831 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
Subseasonal surface wind variability strongly impacts the annual mean and subseasonal turbulent atmospheric surface fluxes. However, the impacts of subseasonal wind variability on the ocean are not fully understood. Here, we quantify the sensitivity of the ocean surface stress (), buoyancy flux (B), and mixed layer depth (MLD) to subseasonal wind variability in both a one-dimensional (1-D) vertical column model and a three-dimensional (3-D) global mesoscale-resolving ocean/sea ice model. The winds are smoothed by time filtering the pseudo-stresses, so the mean stress is approximately unchanged, and some important surface flux feedbacks are retained. The 1-D results quantify the sensitivities to wind variability at different time scales from 120 days to 1 day at a few sites. The 3-D results quantify the sensitivities to wind variability shorter than 60 days at all locations, and comparisons between 1-D and 3-D results highlight the importance of 3-D ocean dynamics. Globally, subseasonal winds explain virtually all of subseasonal variance, about half of subseasonal B variance but only a quarter of subseasonal MLD variance. Subseasonal winds also explain about a fifth of the annual mean MLD and a similar and spatially correlated fraction of the mean friction velocity, u*=|tau|/rho sw where rho(sw) is the density of seawater. Hence, the subseasonal MLD variance is relatively insensitive to subseasonal winds despite their strong impact on local B and variability, but the mean MLD is relatively sensitive to subseasonal winds to the extent that they modify the mean u(*), and both of these sensitivities are modified by 3-D ocean dynamics. 1852977 NA18OAR4310408 1501993 1658541 |
author2 |
Whitt, Daniel B. (author) Nicholson, S. A. (author) Carranza, Magdalena M. (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
spellingShingle |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
title_short |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
title_full |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
title_fullStr |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global impacts of subseasonal (<60Â Day) wind variability on ocean Surface Stress, Buoyancy Flux, and Mixed Layer Depth |
title_sort |
global impacts of subseasonal (<60â day) wind variability on ocean surface stress, buoyancy flux, and mixed layer depth |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015166 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_relation |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans--J. Geophys. Res. Oceans--2169-9275--2169-9291 danielwhitt/globalimpacts_2019_whittetal: with monthly MLD climatology, for resubmission to JGR--10.5281/zenodo.3360082 articles:23136 ark:/85065/d7sq93ks doi:10.1029/2019JC015166 |
op_rights |
Copyright 2020 American Geophysical Union. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015166 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans |
container_volume |
124 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
8798 |
op_container_end_page |
8831 |
_version_ |
1797569193878487040 |