FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Atmospheric response to sea surface temperature mesoscale structures BT AF LAMBAERTS, J. LAPEYRE, Guillaume PLOUGONVEN, R. KLEIN, Patrice AS 1:1,2;2:1;3:1;4:3; FF 1:;2:;3:;4:; C1 UPMC, Ecole Polytech, CNRS, Ecole Normale Super,IPSL,Lab Meterol Dynam, Palaiseau, France. NYU, Courant Inst Math Sci, Ctr Atmosphere Ocean Sci, New York, NY USA. IRD, UBO, IFREMER, CNRS,UMR 6523,Lab Phys Oceans, Plouzane, France. C2 UNIV PARIS 06, FRANCE UNIV NEW YORK NYU, USA CNRS, FRANCE IF 3.454 TC 33 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00169/28047/26247.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;air-sea interactions;boundary layer;sea surface temperature AB Recent studies have revealed that strong sea surface temperature (SST) fronts, on the scale of a Western Boundary Current, significantly affect not just the Marine Boundary Layer but the entire troposphere. This has aroused renewed interest in air-sea interactions. The present study investigates the atmospheric response to fixed SST anomalies associated with mesoscale oceanic eddies and submesoscale filaments, using idealized simulations. Our main result is that in weak wind conditions, the vertical velocity in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) is linearly proportional to the SST Laplacian. This is established by a quantitative analysis in the spatial space as well as in the spectral space. Comparing the responses to two different SST fields shows that vertical velocities are much more intense when the submesoscales are more energetic. These results hold for different configurations of the atmospheric large-scale state and for different PBL parameterizations. Surface winds play the role of low-pass filter and reduce the response at the smaller scales. To our knowledge, this study is the first to clearly reveal the high impact of oceanic submesoscales on the atmospheric boundary layer at midlatitudes, as well as the direct link between the vertical velocity and the SST Laplacian. PY 2013 PD SEP SO Journal Of Geophysical Research-atmospheres SN 2169-897X PU Amer Geophysical Union VL 118 IS 17 UT 000325489300023 BP 9611 EP 9621 DI 10.1002/jgrd.50769 ID 28047 ER EF