Near-surface wind convergence over the Gulf Stream - The role of SST revisited

Initial analyses appeared to show a close association between this time-mean NSWC and time-mean properties of the underlying sea surface temperature (SST), such as the gradients and second derivatives (e.g., Laplacian of SST), acting through pressure-adjustment and vertical-mixing mechanisms.

However, a series of recent papers have revealed the instantaneous NSWC to be dominated by atmospheric fronts and have suggested the importance of air-sea processes occurring instead on shorter, synoptic time scales. In this paper, using the ERA5 reanalysis dataset in the Gulf Stream region, we aim to reconcile these viewpoints by investigating the spatial and temporal dependence of NSWC and its relationship to SST. It is revealed that while atmospheric frontal processes govern the day-to-day variability of NSWC, the relatively weak but persistent pres-sure-adjustment and vertical-mixing mechanisms provide lower-frequency modulations in conditions both with and without atmospheric fronts.