The impact of SST resolution change in the ERA-Interim reanalysis on wintertime Gulf Stream frontal air-sea interaction

Thumbnail Image
Date
2017-04-01
Authors
Parfitt, Rhys
Czaja, Arnaud
Kwon, Young-Oh
Linked Authors
Alternative Title
Date Created
Location
DOI
10.1002/2017GL073028
Related Materials
Replaces
Replaced By
Keywords
Frontal air-sea interaction
Oceanic fronts
Atmospheric fronts
ERA-Interim
Midlatitude climate variability
Abstract
This paper examines the sensitivity to a change in sea surface temperature (SST) resolution of the interaction between atmospheric and oceanic fronts in the Gulf Stream region in the ERA-Interim reanalysis data set. Two periods are considered, January 1979 to December 2001 (SST resolution 1° × 1°) and December 2010 to February 2016 (SST resolution 0.05° × 0.05°). The winter season from the latter 6 years of high-resolution SST is compared against six random periods of six wintertime seasons from the low-resolution SST period, to assess the robustness of the result against natural climate variability. In all comparisons, a significant change in frontal air-sea sensible heat flux exchange is found that is highly correlated to the change in mean SST gradient. This leads to both increases and decreases in occurrence of atmospheric fronts and mean precipitation of up to 30%. These results reemphasize the importance of high SST resolution in resolving the influence of oceanic fronts on weather and climate.
Description
Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2017. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 44 (2017): 3246–3254, doi:10.1002/2017GL073028.
Embargo Date
Citation
Geophysical Research Letters 44 (2017): 3246–3254
Cruises
Cruise ID
Cruise DOI
Vessel Name