Atmospheric response to ocean fronts and eddies: A Review

Air-sea interaction at ocean fronts and eddies exhibits positive correlation between SST, wind speed, and heat fluxes out of the ocean, indicating that the ocean is forcing the atmosphere. This contrasts with some larger scale climate modes where the negative correlations suggest that the atmosphere is driving the system. This talk reviews the studies of physical processes that lie behind the interaction of sharp SST gradients and the overlying marine planetary boundary layer and deeper atmosphere. The importance of different physical mechanisms of atmospheric response to SST gradients, such as the effect of surface stability variations on momentum transfer, pressure gradients, secondary circulations and cloud cover will be assessed. These processes will be compared and contrasted for different regions such as the Equatorial Front in the Eastern Pacific, and oceanic fronts in mid-latitudes such as the Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, and Agulhas Return Current.