FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI Equatorial Atlantic interannual variability and its relation to dynamic and thermodynamic processes BT AF JOUANNO, Julien HERNANDEZ, Olga SANCHEZ-GOMEZ, Emilia AS 1:1;2:1,2;3:3; FF 1:;2:;3:; C1 Univ Toulouse, LEGOS, CNES, CNRS,IRD,UPS, Toulouse, France. Mercator Ocean, Ramonville St Agne, France. CECI CERFACS, Toulouse, France. C2 UNIV TOULOUSE, FRANCE MERCATOR OCEAN, FRANCE CNRS, FRANCE IN DOAJ IF 3.769 TC 34 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00623/73554/73795.pdf https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00623/73554/73800.pdf LA English DT Article CR PIRATA AB The contributions of the dynamic and thermodynamic forcing to the interannual variability of the equatorial Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) are investigated using a set of interannual regional simulations of the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The ocean model is forced with an interactive atmospheric boundary layer, avoiding damping toward prescribed air temperature as is usually the case in forced ocean models. The model successfully reproduces a large fraction (R-2 = 0.55) of the observed interannual variability in the equatorial Atlantic. In agreement with leading theories, our results confirm that the interannual variations of the dynamical forcing largely contributes to this variability. We show that mean and seasonal upper ocean temperature biases, commonly found in fully coupled models, strongly favor an unrealistic thermodynamic control of the equatorial Atlantic interannual variability. PY 2017 PD NOV SO Earth System Dynamics SN 2190-4979 PU Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh VL 8 IS 4 UT 000416561600001 BP 1061 EP 1069 DI 10.5194/esd-8-1061-2017 ID 73554 ER EF