Ocean Mesoscale and Frontal-Scale Ocean–Atmosphere Interactions and Influence on Large-Scale Climate: A Review

The air-sea exchanges in latent heat, sensible heat, momen-tum, and carbon dioxide associated with this so-called mesoscale air-sea interaction are robust near the major west-ern boundary currents, Southern Ocean fronts, and equatorial and coastal upwelling zones, but they are also ubiquitous over the global oceans wherever ocean mesoscale processes are active.

Current theories, informed by rap-idly advancing observational and modeling capabilities, have established the importance of mesoscale and frontal -scale air-sea interaction processes for understanding large-scale ocean circulation, biogeochemistry, and weather and climate variability. However, numerous challenges remain to accurately diagnose, observe, and simulate mesoscale air-sea interaction to quantify its impacts on large-scale processes.