SGER: Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Influence on Surface Wind Stress in Climate Models

对地球气候系统的模拟在很大程度上依赖于对海气界面相互作用的准确描述，在这里，海洋的影响被传递给大气。海温（SST）和地面风应力之间的关系是这种海洋-大气相互作用的有力表现。在地面风斜吹过海温锋的地区（如热带东太平洋的冷舌），风应力被海温引起的大气边界层结构和稳定性的变化所改变。海温的影响在风应力散度和旋度（总环流的两个分量）中最为明显，它们分别与海温梯度的顺风和侧风分量呈线性关系。本研究的目的是通过分析由政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）科学评估开发的美国气候模型产生的全球地面风应力和海温场来研究这种耦合。通过比较模拟的海温和风应力场与从5年海温和风应力场的卫星测量推断出的关系，将评估这种海洋-大气耦合模式表示的充分性。更广泛的影响：如果成功，这项研究将提供对大规模海洋-大气相互作用的更好理解，并改进对由于这些相互作用的不当表示而导致的预测不确定性的估计。这些结果有利于环境管理者和决策者，从而有利于社会活动。

Simulating the Earth's climate system is critically dependent on accurate representation of interactions at the air-sea interface where the effects of the ocean are communicated to the atmosphere. A robust manifestation of this ocean-atmosphere interaction is the relationship between sea surface temperature (SST) and surface wind stress. In regions where surface winds blow obliquely across SST fronts (e.g., over the cold tongue in the eastern tropical Pacific), the wind stress is modified by SST-induced changes in the structure and stability of the atmospheric boundary layer. This SST influence is most clearly evident in the wind stress divergence and curl (measures of two components of the total circulation), which have been shown to be linearly related to the downwind and crosswind components of the SST gradient, respectively.The objective of this study is to investigate this coupling from analyses of the global surface wind stress and SST fields generated by the U.S. climate models that have been developed for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) science assessment. The adequacies of the model representations of this ocean-atmosphere coupling will be assessed by comparing the relationships between the simulated SST and wind stress fields with the relationships deduced from 5 years of satellite measurements of SST and wind stress. Broader Impacts: If successful, this research should provide better understanding of large-scale ocean-atmosphere interactions and improved estimates of uncertainty in prediction that result from improper representations of those interactions. These outcomes benefit environment managers and decision-makers, and thus, societal activities.