Haline hurricane wake in the Amazon/Orinoco plume: AQUARIUS/SACD and SMOS observations
| Type | Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 2012-10 | ||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||
| Author(s) | Grodsky Semyon A.1, Reul Nicolas 2, Lagerloef Gary3, Reverdin Gilles4, Carton James A.1, Chapron Bertrand2, Quilfen Yves2, Kudryavtsev Vladimir N.5, 6, Kao Hsun-Ying3 |
||||||||
| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Univ Maryland, Dept Atmospher & Ocean Sci, College Pk, MD 20742 USA. 2 : Inst Francais Rech & Exploitat Mer, Plouzane, France. 3 : Earth & Space Res, Seattle, WA USA. 4 : UPMC, Lab Oceanog & Climatol Experimentat & Anal Numer, Inst Pierre Simon Laplace, CNRS,IRD,MNHN, Paris, France. 5 : Russian State Hydrometeorol Univ, Satellite Oceanog Lab, St Petersburg, Russia. 6 : Nansen Int Environm & Remote Sensing Ctr, St Petersburg, Russia. |
||||||||
| Source | Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (Amer Geophysical Union), 2012-10 , Vol. 39 , N. L20603 , P. 1-8 | ||||||||
| DOI | 10.1029/2012GL053335 | ||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 88 | ||||||||
| Abstract | At its seasonal peak the Amazon/Orinoco plume covers a region of 10^6 km2 in the western tropical Atlantic with more than 1m of extra freshwater, creating a near-surface barrier layer (BL) that inhibits mixing and warms the sea surface temperature (SST) to >29oC. Here new sea surface salinity (SSS) observations from the Aquarius/SACD and SMOS satellites help elucidate the ocean response to hurricane Katia, which crossed the plume in early fall, 2011. Its passage left a 1.5psu high haline wake covering >10^5 km2 (in its impact on density, the equivalent of a 3.5oC cooling) due to mixing of the shallow BL. Destruction of this BL apparently decreased SST cooling in the plume, and thus preserved higher SST and evaporation than outside. Combined with SST, the new satellite SSS data provide a new and better tool to monitor the plume extent and quantify tropical cyclone upper ocean responses with important implications for forecasting. | ||||||||
| Full Text |
|