Impact of Sea Surface Temperature and Ocean Waves on the Development and Intensity of Hurricanes in the North Atlantic

The roughness of the ocean surface and sea surface temperature (SST) play pivotal roles in air-sea interaction, especially in the context of hurricanes. Investigating the impact of ocean waves on the ocean surface roughness and atmospheric properties, including hurricane characteristics, through the exchange of momentum, heat, and moisture fluxes, constitutes an active and ongoing area of research (e.g., Kumar et al. 2020; Zambon et al. 2021).

To address this question, we propose to study simulations of historical hurricanes using a fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-wave model (COAWST; Warner et al. 2010). Hurricanes of interest include Henri 2021, Florence 2018, and Irene 2011, all of which caused considerable damage along the East Coast. In our simulation, we explore diverse approaches to couple the atmosphere-ocean-wave components, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of air-sea interaction through a series of experiments. In this context, enhancements were made to the SWAN model, incorporating 1) non-breaking wave mixing (NBK), 2) wave-current interaction (WCI) features, and 3) coupling between other surface layer schemes and wave modeling, in addition to the default options in COAWST. As a result, a set of model experiments is conducted, including atmosphere-only simulations, atmosphere-ocean coupling, atmosphere-ocean-wave coupling, atmosphere-ocean-wave coupling with NBK feature, atmosphere-ocean-wave coupling with WCI feature, and more. The outcomes are currently under evaluation against IBTrACS, as well as dropsonde and aircraft observations. Our presentation will feature an assessment of the underlying physical mechanisms contributing to the varied outputs observed with different air-sea interaction combinations.