The signature of mesoscale eddies on the air‐sea turbulent heat fluxes in the South Atlantic Ocean

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Villas Bôas, A., Sato, O., Chaigneau, Alexis, Castelão, G.
• Other Authors: Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales (LEGOS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2015
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; South Atlantic Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04430663; https://hal.science/hal-04430663/document; https://hal.science/hal-04430663/file/Geophysical%20Research%20Letters%20-%202015%20-%20Villas%20B%C3%B4as%20-%20The%20signature%20of%20mesoscale%20eddies%20on%20the%20air%E2%80%90sea%20turbulent%20heat%20fluxes.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063105

International audience Abstract By collocating 10 years (1999–2009) of remotely sensed surface turbulent heat fluxes with satellite altimetry data, we investigate the impact of oceanic mesoscale eddies on the latent and sensible heat fluxes in the South Atlantic Ocean. In strongly energetic regions, such as the Brazil–Malvinas confluence and the Agulhas Current Retroflection, eddies explain up to 20% of the total variance in the surface turbulent heat fluxes with averaged anomalies of ± (10–20) W/m 2 . Cyclonic (anticyclonic, respectively) eddies are associated with negative (positive) heat flux anomalies that tend to cool (warm) the marine atmospheric boundary layer. A composite analysis of the turbulent heat flux anomalies inside the eddies reveals a direct relationship between eddy amplitude and the intensity of such anomalies. In addition, these anomalies are stronger near the eddy center, decaying radially to reach minimum values outside the eddies.