Gulf Stream drives Kuroshio behind the recent abnormal ocean warming

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Yamagami, Yoko, Tatebe, Hiroaki, Kohyama, Tsubasa, Kido, Shoichiro, Okajima, Satoru
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Yamagami, Yoko
Tatebe, Hiroaki
Kohyama, Tsubasa
Kido, Shoichiro
Okajima, Satoru
author_facet Yamagami, Yoko
Tatebe, Hiroaki
Kohyama, Tsubasa
Kido, Shoichiro
Okajima, Satoru
contents Recent unprecedented ocean warming has produced coherent sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies across the Northern Hemisphere extratropics. Despite extensive research on inter-basin interactions, the causal mechanisms linking North Pacific and North Atlantic variability remain poorly understood. Here we show that internal SST variability in the Gulf Stream region accounts for 16% of internal SST variability in the Kuroshio region in climate model simulations, while no significant reverse influence is detected. Specifically, positive SST anomalies in the Gulf Stream excite a Northern Annular Mode (NAM)-like atmospheric circulation pattern, that weakens the Aleutian Low over the North Pacific. The resulting northward shift of the Kuroshio Extension enhances northward warm water transport and induces positive SST anomalies in the North Pacific. Climate models with higher oceanic spatial resolution capture this SST-NAM coupling substantially better than coarser-resolution models. These findings identify North Atlantic variability as a key pacemaker of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude climate, with implications for understanding and predicting the accelerated ocean warming observed across the Northern Hemisphere in recent decades.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_01117
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gulf Stream drives Kuroshio behind the recent abnormal ocean warming
Yamagami, Yoko
Tatebe, Hiroaki
Kohyama, Tsubasa
Kido, Shoichiro
Okajima, Satoru
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
Recent unprecedented ocean warming has produced coherent sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies across the Northern Hemisphere extratropics. Despite extensive research on inter-basin interactions, the causal mechanisms linking North Pacific and North Atlantic variability remain poorly understood. Here we show that internal SST variability in the Gulf Stream region accounts for 16% of internal SST variability in the Kuroshio region in climate model simulations, while no significant reverse influence is detected. Specifically, positive SST anomalies in the Gulf Stream excite a Northern Annular Mode (NAM)-like atmospheric circulation pattern, that weakens the Aleutian Low over the North Pacific. The resulting northward shift of the Kuroshio Extension enhances northward warm water transport and induces positive SST anomalies in the North Pacific. Climate models with higher oceanic spatial resolution capture this SST-NAM coupling substantially better than coarser-resolution models. These findings identify North Atlantic variability as a key pacemaker of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitude climate, with implications for understanding and predicting the accelerated ocean warming observed across the Northern Hemisphere in recent decades.
title Gulf Stream drives Kuroshio behind the recent abnormal ocean warming
topic Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01117