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Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic
The direct response of the tropical mixed layer to near-inertial waves (NIWs) has only rarely been observed. Here, we present upper-ocean turbulence data that provide evidence for a strongly elevated vertical diffusive heat flux across the base of the mixed layer in the presence of a NIW, thereby co...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395095/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32737290 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17601-x |
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author | Hummels, Rebecca Dengler, Marcus Rath, Willi Foltz, Gregory R. Schütte, Florian Fischer, Tim Brandt, Peter |
author_facet | Hummels, Rebecca Dengler, Marcus Rath, Willi Foltz, Gregory R. Schütte, Florian Fischer, Tim Brandt, Peter |
author_sort | Hummels, Rebecca |
collection | PubMed |
description | The direct response of the tropical mixed layer to near-inertial waves (NIWs) has only rarely been observed. Here, we present upper-ocean turbulence data that provide evidence for a strongly elevated vertical diffusive heat flux across the base of the mixed layer in the presence of a NIW, thereby cooling the mixed layer at a rate of 244 W m(−2) over the 20 h of continuous measurements. We investigate the seasonal cycle of strong NIW events and find that despite their local intermittent nature, they occur preferentially during boreal summer, presumably associated with the passage of atmospheric African Easterly Waves. We illustrate the impact of these rare but intense NIW induced mixing events on the mixed layer heat balance, highlight their contribution to the seasonal evolution of sea surface temperature, and discuss their potential impact on biological productivity in the tropical North Atlantic. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7395095 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-73950952020-08-18 Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic Hummels, Rebecca Dengler, Marcus Rath, Willi Foltz, Gregory R. Schütte, Florian Fischer, Tim Brandt, Peter Nat Commun Article The direct response of the tropical mixed layer to near-inertial waves (NIWs) has only rarely been observed. Here, we present upper-ocean turbulence data that provide evidence for a strongly elevated vertical diffusive heat flux across the base of the mixed layer in the presence of a NIW, thereby cooling the mixed layer at a rate of 244 W m(−2) over the 20 h of continuous measurements. We investigate the seasonal cycle of strong NIW events and find that despite their local intermittent nature, they occur preferentially during boreal summer, presumably associated with the passage of atmospheric African Easterly Waves. We illustrate the impact of these rare but intense NIW induced mixing events on the mixed layer heat balance, highlight their contribution to the seasonal evolution of sea surface temperature, and discuss their potential impact on biological productivity in the tropical North Atlantic. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-07-31 /pmc/articles/PMC7395095/ /pubmed/32737290 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17601-x Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Hummels, Rebecca Dengler, Marcus Rath, Willi Foltz, Gregory R. Schütte, Florian Fischer, Tim Brandt, Peter Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title | Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title_full | Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title_fullStr | Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed | Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title_short | Surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical Atlantic |
title_sort | surface cooling caused by rare but intense near-inertial wave induced mixing in the tropical atlantic |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7395095/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32737290 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17601-x |
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