Statistical Characterization of Zonal and Meridional Ocean Wind Stress

Gille, Sarah T.

doi:10.1175/jtech1789.1

Cited by 63 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…8b), indicating that the seasonal signal in advection can be attributed to the seasonal cycle in h m . This is consistent with the fact that the wind stress experiences very weak seasonal variations in the Southern Ocean (Gille 2005). The magnitude of the advection increases slightly during winter and decreases substantially during summer.…”

Section: A Domain Averagesupporting

confidence: 89%

An Assessment of the Southern Ocean Mixed Layer Heat Budget

2007

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The mixed layer heat balance in the Southern Ocean is examined by combining remotely sensed measurements and in situ observations from 1 June 2002 to 31 May 2006, coinciding with the period during which Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (EOS) (AMSR-E) sea surface temperature measurements are available. Temperature/salinity profiles from Argo floats are used to derive the mixed layer depth. All terms in the heat budget are estimated directly from available data. The domain-averaged terms of oceanic heat advection, entrainment, diffusion, and air-sea flux are largely consistent with the evolution of the mixed layer temperature. The mixed layer temperature undergoes a strong seasonal cycle, which is largely attributed to the air-sea heat fluxes. Entrainment plays a secondary role. Oceanic advection also experiences a seasonal cycle, although it is relatively weak. Most of the seasonal variations in the advection term come from the Ekman advection, in contrast with western boundary current regions where geostrophic advection controls the total advection. Substantial imbalances exist in the regional heat budgets, especially near the northern boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The biggest contributor to the surface heat budget error is thought to be the air-sea heat fluxes, because only limited Southern Hemisphere data are available for the reanalysis products, and hence these fluxes have large uncertainties. In particular, the lack of in situ measurements during winter is of fundamental concern. Sensitivity tests suggest that a proper representation of the mixed layer depth is important to close the budget. Salinity influences the stratification in the Southern Ocean; temperature alone provides an imperfect estimate of mixed layer depth and, because of this, also an imperfect estimate of the temperature of water entrained into the mixed layer from below.

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Section: A Domain Averagesupporting

confidence: 89%

An Assessment of the Southern Ocean Mixed Layer Heat Budget

2007

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“…The observed surface wind stress spectra, on the other hand, are red, with spectral slopes typically varying between 21 and 22 (e.g., Gille 2005). Figure 1a shows the global surface wind stress spectra averaged over the period 2001-14.…”

Section: B Inertial Wind Stress Forcingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Latitudinal Dependence of Wind-Induced Near-Inertial Energy

Zhai

2015

Journal of Physical Oceanography

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Midlatitude storms, accounting for the majority of wind energy input to near-inertial motions in the ocean, are known to shift their track significantly from one year to another. The consequence of such storm track shifts on wind-induced near-inertial energy (NIE) is yet unknown. Here, the latitudinal dependence of wind-induced NIE is first analyzed in the framework of the slab model and then tested using two numerical ocean models. It is found that the NIE input by pure inertial wind stress forcing, which dominates the wind energy input to near-inertial motions, is independent of latitude. As a consequence, the NIE generated by white-noise wind stress forcing is also latitudinally independent. In contrast, the NIE generated by red-noise wind stress forcing shows strong dependence on latitude owing to longer inertial periods at lower latitudes capable of sampling greater inertial wind stress forcing. Given that the observed surface wind stress spectra are red, results from this study suggest that an equatorward shift of the storm track is likely to result in an increase in wind-induced NIE in the ocean, while the opposite is true for a poleward shift.

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“…For a review of non-Gaussian statistics in the atmosphere, see, for example, Stephenson et al (2004) or Sura et al (2005) and references therein. Here, we focus on oceanic variability, keeping in mind that non-Gaussianity in the atmospheric forcing fields (e.g., Monahan 2006a, b;Gille 2005) may account for some fraction of the oceanic non-Gaussianity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On non-Gaussian SST variability in the Gulf Stream and other strong currents

Sura

2009

Ocean Dynamics

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This paper examines the physics of observed non-Gaussian sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly variability in the Gulf Stream system in a recently developed stochastic framework. It is first shown from a new high-resolution observational data set that the Gulf Stream system is very clearly visible as a band of negative skewness all the way from Florida, over Cape Hatteras, to the central North Atlantic. To get an idea about the detailed non-Gaussian variability along the Gulf Stream, probability density functions are calculated at several locations. One important observational result of this study is that the non-Gaussian tails of SST variability in the Gulf Stream system follow a power-law distribution. The study then shows that the observed non-Gaussianity is consistent with stochastic advection of SST anomalies in an idealized zonal current. In addition, stochastic advection is compatible with the observed northward eddy heat flux in the Gulf Stream, providing a new dynamical view at the heat balance in strong currents.

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Statistical Characterization of Zonal and Meridional Ocean Wind Stress

Cited by 63 publications

References 61 publications

An Assessment of the Southern Ocean Mixed Layer Heat Budget

An Assessment of the Southern Ocean Mixed Layer Heat Budget

Latitudinal Dependence of Wind-Induced Near-Inertial Energy

On non-Gaussian SST variability in the Gulf Stream and other strong currents

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