Ma Xiaohui, Zhang Xingzhi, Wu Lixin, Tang Zhili, Yang Peiran, Song Fengfei, Jing Zhao, Chen Hui, Qu Yushan, Yuan Man, Chen Zhaohui, Gan Bolan
Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System and Key Laboratory of Physical Oceanography, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China.
Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao, China.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 4;15(1):7699. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52077-z.
The influence of greenhouse warming on mesoscale air-sea interactions, crucial for modulating ocean circulation and climate variability, remains largely unexplored due to the limited resolution of current climate models. Additionally, there is a lack of theoretical frameworks for assessing changes in mesoscale coupling due to warming. Here, we address these gaps by analyzing eddy-resolving high-resolution climate simulations and observations, focusing on the mesoscale thermal interaction dominated by mesoscale sea surface temperature (SST) and latent heat flux (LHF) coupling in winter. Our findings reveal a consistent increase in mesoscale SST-LHF coupling in the major western boundary current regions under warming, characterized by a heightened nonlinearity between warm and cold eddies and a more pronounced enhancement in the northern hemisphere. To understand the dynamics, we develop a theoretical framework that links mesoscale thermal coupling changes to large-scale factors, which indicates that the projected changes are collectively determined by historical background wind, SST, and the rate of SST warming. Among these factors, the large-scale SST and its warming rate are the primary drivers of hemispheric asymmetry in mesoscale coupling intensification. This study introduces a simplified approach for assessing the projected mesoscale thermal coupling changes in a warming world.
温室变暖对中尺度海气相互作用的影响在很大程度上仍未得到充分探索，而中尺度海气相互作用对于调节海洋环流和气候变率至关重要，这是由于当前气候模型的分辨率有限所致。此外，还缺乏用于评估变暖导致的中尺度耦合变化的理论框架。在此，我们通过分析能解析涡旋的高分辨率气候模拟和观测数据来填补这些空白，重点关注冬季以中尺度海表面温度（SST）和潜热通量（LHF）耦合为主导的中尺度热相互作用。我们的研究结果表明，在变暖情况下，主要西边界流区域的中尺度SST - LHF耦合持续增加，其特征是冷暖涡旋之间的非线性增强，且在北半球更为显著。为理解其动力学机制，我们建立了一个理论框架，将中尺度热耦合变化与大尺度因素联系起来，这表明预计的变化是由历史背景风、SST以及SST变暖速率共同决定的。在这些因素中，大尺度SST及其变暖速率是中尺度耦合强化中半球不对称性的主要驱动因素。本研究引入了一种简化方法，用于评估变暖世界中预计的中尺度热耦合变化。
