Satellite Observations of Cool Ocean–Atmosphere Interaction

Abstract

Over most of the World Ocean, sea surface temperature (SST) is below 26°C and atmospheric deep convection rarely takes place. Cool ocean–atmosphere interaction is poorly understood and this lack of understanding is a stumbling block in the current effort to study non-ENSO climate variability. Using new satellite observations, the response of surface wind and low clouds to changes in SST is investigated over cool oceans, where the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is often capped by a temperature inversion. While one-way atmospheric forcing is a major mechanism for basinscale SST variability in the extratropics, clear wind response is detected in regions of strong ocean currents. In particular, SST modulation of vertical momentum mixing emerges as the dominant mechanism for SST-induced wind variability near oceanic fronts around the world, which is characterized by a positive SST–wind speed correlation. Several types of boundary layer cloud response are found, whose correlation with SST varies from positive to negative, depending on the role of surface moisture convergence. Noting that the surface moisture convergence is strongly scale dependent, it is proposed that horizontal scale is important for setting the sign of this SST–cloud correlation. Finally, the processes by which a shallow PBL response might lead to a deep, tropospheric-scale response and the implications for the study of extratropical basin-scale air–sea interaction are discussed.