Global analysis of the pressure adjustment mechanism over sea surface temperature fronts using AIRS/Aqua data

We investigate the signatures of atmospheric pressure adjustment mechanism for surface wind convergence/divergence over major sea surface temperature (SST) frontal regions using global observations of satellite sounding and scatterometer. Lower tropospheric air thickness, which includes a sea-level pressure component modified by air temperature in the marine atmospheric boundary layer, is analyzed, and the relation between the Laplacian of the thickness and wind convergence are examined. Among four SST frontal regions in mid-latitudes, correlation between the thickness Laplacian and wind convergence is the largest over the Gulf Stream followed by those for the Agulhas Return Current and for the Brazil/Malvinas Current, and relatively small but still significant over the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension. These correlations strongly suggest that the pressure adjustment mechanism ubiquitously plays an important role in air-sea interaction over the global SST frontal regions. Furthermore, air temperatures in the first two regions exhibit SST-relating signatures even in the mid-troposphere. Citation: Shimada, T., and S. Minobe (2011), Global analysis of the pressure adjustment mechanism over sea surface temperature fronts using AIRS/Aqua data, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L06704, doi:10.1029/2010GL046625.