Figure 4
From: Dampening of Submesoscale Currents by Air-Sea Stress Coupling in the Californian Upwelling System
The CFB induces a sink of energy from SMCs to the atmosphere but also an additional injection of energy by baroclinic conversion that partly counteracts the sink of energy. (a) Binned scatter-plot of the full time series of 1-day running means of surface stress curl and surface current vorticity over the 500 m CROCO simulations domain. The bars indicate plus and minus one standard deviation from the average value (stars). The linear regression is indicated by a line and the slope sτ is indicated in the legend (10−2 N s m−3). NOCFB and CTRL are represented in blue and orange, respectively. NOCFB has a slight positive slope that may be due to the TFB to the atmosphere, but the CFB overwhelms it in CTRL, causing a negative slope. The CFB induces submesoscale surface stress structures. (b) Mean submesoscale wind-work (FsKs) from NOCFB and (c) CTRL. The CFB induces a sink of energy from the SMCs to the atmosphere, which in turn dampens the SMCs. (d) Two-dimensional wind work (FK = τ·u) spectrum from NOCFB (blue) and CTRL (orange). (e) Two-dimensional co-spectrum of Ekman pumping induced by the stress (wτ) and b, integrated over 100 m depth for NOCFB (blue) and CTRL (orange).
