Statistical Characterization of the Observed Cold Wake Induced by North Atlantic Hurricanes
Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, Building 23, 2628CN Delft, The Netherlands
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Remote Sens. 2019, 11(20), 2368; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202368
Received: 10 September 2019 / Revised: 30 September 2019 / Accepted: 5 October 2019 / Published: 12 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tropical Cyclones Remote Sensing and Data Assimilation)
This work quantifies the magnitude, spatial structure, and temporal evolution of the cold wake left by North Atlantic hurricanes. To this end we composited the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) induced by hurricane observations from 2002 to 2018 derived from the international best track archive for climate stewardship (IBTrACS). Cold wake characteristics were distinguished by a set of hurricane and oceanic properties: Hurricane translation speed and intensity, and the characteristics of the upper ocean stratification represented by two barrier layer metrics: Barrier layer thickness (BLT) and barrier layer potential energy (BLPE). The contribution of the above properties to the amplitude of the cold wake was analyzed individually and in combination. The mean magnitude of the hurricane-induced cooling was of 1.7 °C when all hurricanes without any distinction were considered, and the largest cooling was found for slow-moving, strong hurricanes passing over thinner barrier layers, with a cooling above 3.5 °C with respect to pre-storm sea surface temperature (SST) conditions. On average the cold wake needed about 60 days to disappear and experienced a strong decay in the first 20 days, when the magnitude of the cold wake had decreased by 80%. Differences between the cold wakes yielded by mostly infrared and merged infrared and microwave remote sensed SST data were also evaluated, with an overall relative underestimation of the hurricane-induced cooling of about 0.4 °C for infrared-mostly data.
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Keywords:
Atlantic Ocean; tropical cyclone; hurricane; sea surface temperature (SST); cold wake; barrier layer; barrier layer potential energy
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MDPI and ACS Style
Haakman, K.; Sayol, J.-M.; van der Boog, C.G.; Katsman, C.A. Statistical Characterization of the Observed Cold Wake Induced by North Atlantic Hurricanes. Remote Sens. 2019, 11, 2368. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202368
AMA Style
Haakman K, Sayol J-M, van der Boog CG, Katsman CA. Statistical Characterization of the Observed Cold Wake Induced by North Atlantic Hurricanes. Remote Sensing. 2019; 11(20):2368. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202368
Chicago/Turabian StyleHaakman, Koen; Sayol, Juan-Manuel; van der Boog, Carine G.; Katsman, Caroline A. 2019. "Statistical Characterization of the Observed Cold Wake Induced by North Atlantic Hurricanes" Remote Sens. 11, no. 20: 2368. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11202368
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