Sea Surface Temperature Response to Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

The response of sea surface temperature (SST) to tropical cyclones is studied using gridded SST data and global cyclone tracks from the period 1981-2008. A compositing approach is used whereby temperature time series before and after cyclone occurrence at individual cyclone track positions are averaged together.Results reveal a variability of several days in the time of maximum cooling with respect to cyclone passage, with the most common occurrence 1 day after cyclone passage. When compositing is carried out relative to the day of maximum cooling, the global average response to cyclone passage is a local minimum SST anomaly of 20.98C. The recovery of the ocean to cyclone passage is generally quite rapid with 44% of the data points recovering to climatological SST within 5 days, and 88% of the data points recovering within 30 days. Although differences exist between the mean results from the separate tropical cyclone basins, they are in broad agreement with the global mean results. Storm intensity and translation speed affect both the size of the SST response and the recovery time.Cyclones occurring in the first half of the cyclone season disrupt the seasonal warming trend, which is not resumed until 20-30 days after cyclone passage. Conversely, cyclone occurrences in the later half of the season bring about a 0.58C temperature drop from which the ocean does not recover due to the seasonal cooling cycle.

Global representation of tropical cyclone-induced short-term ocean thermal changes using Argo data

“…2b, d) with magnitudes of less than 40 % of the signals. The rightward-biased cooling in the track coordinate system near the surface is also found in previous studies (left side in the Southern Hemisphere) (Dare and McBride, 2011;Price, 1981Price, , 1983Sanford et al, 2011;Dickey et al, 1998) due to the stronger vertical shear in the right side of the track. This mechanism contributes ∼ 80 % of the SST response (Price et al, 1994).…”

“…TC-induced surface cooling can cause a reversal of surface fluxes in the days following storm passage, which marks the transition between the forcing stage and the recovery stage. Some studies suggest fluxes may reverse sign around 2 days after TC passage (Dare and McBride, 2011;Lloyd and Vecchi, 2011). The exact timing of this reversal depends on many factors, such as storm intensity, translation speed and regional conditions, and the best choice is unclear in a global context.…”

Sea surface height evidence for long-term warming effects of tropical cyclones on the ocean

“…wrote the paper. the SST within a few weeks (8)(9)(10), whereas the bottom part of the TC-induced cold anomaly takes a much longer period to dissipate (32,33) (see also a scaling argument discussed in SI Appendix, SI Results).…”

“…The wake produced by the passage of TCs is thus characterized by a surface cold anomaly and a subsurface warm anomaly (1-3, 6, 7). After the TC passage, the sea surface cold anomaly dissipates quickly (8)(9)(10), due in part to anomalous air-sea heat fluxes (9,11), whereas the subsurface warm anomaly is believed to persist over a much longer period (12). This has led to the suggestion that the net longterm effect of TCs is to pump heat into the ocean (13)(14)(15)(16).…”

Effect of Sea Surface Temperature Gradient Induced by the Previous Typhoon's Cold Wake on the Track of the Following Typhoon: Bolaven (1215) and Tembin (1214)

“…실제 로, 2010년 발생한 태풍 말라커스(2010)의 경우 해 수 냉각(cold wake) 효과로 인해 동서로 해수면 온 도 경도가 발달하며 국지적인 해수면 온도 분포의 차이를 보였다 (D'Asaro et al, 2013). 일반적으로, 선 행 태풍의 해수 냉각 효과는 냉각이 이뤄지고 나서 약 5일 이후 난류 혼합에 의한 냉각 효과가 44% 회 복되고, 30일 이후 해수 냉각 효과가 88% 회복된다 (Dare and McBride, 2011). 이러한 태풍의 해수 냉각 효과는 후행 태풍의 진로 예보와 강도에 영향을 준 다.…”