Publication Date:
2022-10-20
Description:
© The Author(s), 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial‐NoDerivs License. The definitive version was published in Clayson, C. A., & Edson, J. B. Diurnal surface flux variability over western boundary currents. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(15), (2019): 9174-9182, doi:10.1029/2019GL082826.
Description:
An analysis of a satellite ocean surface turbulent flux product demonstrated that, as expected, the western boundary current regions dominate the seasonal cycle amplitude. Surprisingly, our analysis of the global ocean diurnal flux variability also demonstrated a regional maximum in the winter over the western boundary current regions. We conducted comparisons with in situ data from several buoys located in these regions. The buoy data were in general agreement with the relative magnitude, timing, and importance of each of the bulk parameters driving the latent and sensible heat fluxes. Further analysis demonstrated that the strength and timing of the diurnal signal is related to the location of the buoy relative to the region of maximum heat flux and sea surface temperature gradient. In both regions, the timing of the higher winds coincides with the moistest surface layer, indicating that surface fluxes rather than entrainment mixing play a key role in this phenomenon.
Description:
CAC gratefully acknowledges funding from the NASA MAP and NEWS programs (NNX13AN48G and NNX15AI47A). CLIMODE data were funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (http://uop.whoi.edu/projects/CLIMODE/climodedata.html). KEO data are provided by the OCS Project Office of NOAA/PMEL (https://www.pmel.noaa.gov/ocs/data/disdel/). JKEO data are provided by RIGC/JAMSTEC and PMEL/NOAA (http://www.jamstec.go.jp/iorgc/ocorp/ktsfg/data/jkeo/). SeaFlux data are provided by the U.S. NOAA Climate Data Record Program (https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdr).
Keywords:
Diurnal variability
;
Western boundary currents
;
Surface fluxes
;
Atmospheric boundary layer
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
