Abstract

The response relationship between equivalent neutral wind speed anomaly (ENWSA) and sea-air temperature difference anomaly (SATDA) has been analyzed over four typical sea regions, i.e., the Kuroshio Extension, the Gulf Stream, the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence and the Agulhas Return Current. The results show that ENWSA is more sensitive to SATDA than sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA), which implies that SATDA seems to be a more suitable parameter than SSTA to analyze the mesoscale air-sea interactions.

Here, the slope of the linear relation between ENWSA and SATDA is defined as the air-sea coupling coefficient. It is found that the values of the coupling coefficient over the four typical sea areas have obvious seasonal variations and geographical differences.

In order to reveal the reason of the seasonal variation and geographical difference of the coupling coefficient, the influences of some environmental background factors, such as the spatially averaged sea surface temperature (SST), the spatially averaged air temperature, the spatially averaged sea-air temperature difference and the spatially averaged equivalent neutral wind speed, on the coupling coefficient are discussed in detail.

The results reveal that the background sea-air temperature difference is an important environmental factor which directly affects the magnitude of the coupling coefficients, meanwhile, the seasonal and geographical variations of the coupling coefficient.