Using satellite data to represent tropical instability waves (TIWs)-induced wind for ocean modeling: A negative feedback onto TIW activity in the Pacific

Abstract

Recent satellite data and modeling studies indicate a pronounced role Tropical Instability Waves (TIW)-induced wind feedback plays in the tropical Pacific climate system. Previously, remotely sensed data were used to derive a diagnostic model for TIW-induced wind stress perturbations (τTIW), which was embedded into an ocean general circulation model (OGCM) to take into account TIW-induced ocean-atmosphere coupling in the tropical Pacific. While the previous paper by Zhang (2013) is concerned with the effect on the mean ocean state, the present paper is devoted to using the embedded system to examine the effects on TIW activity in the ocean, with tTIW being interactively determined from TIW-scale sea surface temperature (SSTTIW) fields generated in the OGCM, written as τTIW = αTIW.F(SSTTIW), where αTIW is a scalar parameter introduced to represent the τTIW forcing intensity. Sensitivity experiments with varying αTIW (representing TIW-scale wind feedback strength) are performed to illustrate a negative feedback induced by TIW-scale air-sea coupling and its relationship with TIW variability in the ocean. Consistent with previous modeling studies, TIW wind feedback tends to have a damping effect on TIWs in the ocean, with a general inverse relationship between the τTIW intensity and TIWs. It is further shown that TIW-scale coupling does not vary linearly with aTIW: the coupling increases linearly with intensifying τTIW forcing at low values of αTIW (in a weak τTIW forcing regime); it becomes saturated at a certain value of αTIW; it decreases when αTIW goes above a threshold value as the τTIW forcing increases further. This work presents a clear demonstration of using satellite data to effectively represent TIW-scale wind feedback and its multi-scale interactions with large-scale ocean processes in the tropical Pacific. © 2013 by the authors.