The ocean and the atmosphere are two key components of the climate system playing an essential role in heat redistribution and storage. Heat is exchanged between these components across the air-sea interface in the form of radiative and turbulent heat fluxes. The former are associated with the presence of electromagnetic waves whose ultimate source is a radiating body at a certain temperature. The latter occur because heat is transported from one medium to the other by an imbalance between a given property and a subsequent atmospheric motion. Among the turbulent heat fluxes, we find latent heat flux which results from water evaporation heat release.

Thus, latent heat flux is tightly linked to the evaporation rate and strongly affects cloud formation, precipitation and the large-scale atmospheric and ocean circulations. In this presentation, we will assess the different mechanisms by which the ocean fine-scales affect latent heat flux variations in the Northwest Tropical Atlantic, an a priori relatively quiescent region in terms of air-sea exchanges within the trades. We will perform a multi-dataset approach involving the analysis of remote sensing and in-situ observations, the ERA5 reanalysis and high-resolution coupled simulations. We will focus on three variables: sea-surface temperature, surface currents and sea surface salinity.

Lieu
École normale supérieure – PSL
24 rue Lhomond – aile Erasme
Salle Claude Froidevaux – E314

Visio
https://cnrs.zoom.us/j/92476279794?pwd=HzXTURAsSyfL3JqsafuuX4fCNayKVZ.1

• Meghan CRONIN rapportrice, Ocean Climate Research Division, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory NOAA
• Adrea Michelangelo DOGLIOLI, examinateur, Mediterranean institute of Oceanography
• Karen HEYWOOD, rapportrice, University of East Anglia
• Gilles REVERDIN, examinateur, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
• Laurent BOPP, examinateur, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique