Characteristics of 3-dimensional structure and heat budget of mesoscale eddies in the South Atlantic Ocean

Abstract

Mesoscale eddies redistribute heat, salt, and nutrients in oceans. The South Atlantic Ocean (SA) is a basin that has active mesoscale eddies for which characteristics of the three-dimensional structure and its leading mechanism are complex but have yet been studied sufficiently. Here based on ocean reanalysis datasets we use a composite analysis approach to analyze the mixed layer anomalous heat budget and find distinct two types of spatial patterns: dipole and monopole – mainly present in the northern and southern regions of the SA, respectively. The dipole can be attributed to ocean horizontal advection, especially to the combined effect of eddy anomalous meridional current and meridional gradient of mean temperature. The monopole, on the other hand, is associated with complex contributions, for which zonal and meridional advections play opposite roles as cooling or heating around the eddies. At the eddy center, the vertical advection is non-negligible, especially the mean upwelling and vertical temperature gradient playing a vital role in the formation of a monopole. The analysis of eddy meridional heat transport shows that the stirring component is dominant, and poleward in most areas, especially at high latitudes. Such analysis on the leading mechanism of eddy-induced temperature anomaly could help improve our understanding on meso- and small-scale air-sea interactions and eddy-induced heat transport in the SA.