Eddy Compensation Dampens Southern Ocean Sea Surface Temperature Response to Westerly Wind Trends

29Citations
Citations of this article
57Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Anthropogenic influences have led to a strengthening and poleward shift of westerly winds over the Southern Ocean, especially during austral summer. We use observations, an idealized eddy-resolving ocean sea ice channel model, and a global coupled model to explore the Southern Ocean response to a step change in westerly winds. Previous work hypothesized a two time scale response for sea surface temperature. Initially, Ekman transport cools the surface before sustained upwelling causes warming on decadal time scales. The fast response is robust across our models and the observations: We find Ekman-driven cooling in the mixed layer, mixing-driven warming below the mixed layer, and a small upwelling-driven warming at the temperature inversion. The long-term response is inaccessible from observations. Neither of our models shows a persistent upwelling anomaly, or long-term, upwelling-driven subsurface warming. Mesoscale eddies act to oppose the anomalous wind-driven upwelling, through a process known as eddy compensation, thereby preventing long-term warming.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Doddridge, E. W., Marshall, J., Song, H., Campin, J. M., Kelley, M., & Nazarenko, L. (2019). Eddy Compensation Dampens Southern Ocean Sea Surface Temperature Response to Westerly Wind Trends. Geophysical Research Letters, 46(8), 4365–4377. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019GL082758

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free