Kowalski, PC; (2013) Models of interannual mid-latitude sea surface temperature variability. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

Abstract

Well established and novel simple mixed layer models are used to investigate some of the factors influencing mid-latitude sea surface temperature variability. This thesis focuses in particular on the re-emergence mechanism and the factors that influence it. The re-emergence mechanism describes the process whereby winter sea surface temperature anomalies can become sequestered below the mixed layer as it reforms in the spring/summer and are entrained into the mixed layer in the following winter, subsequently impacting the sea surface temperature. In chapter 2 the idealized mixed layer column model used in Stevenson [36] and the quasi-geostrophic wind driven ocean model are derived. Chapter 3 investigates how sea surface temperature anomalies are generated and decay through mixed layer processes and in the absence of atmospheric feedback. The e ect of atmospheric feedback on the sea surface temperature and mixed layer is investigated in chapter 4. Two new models of the re-emergence mechanism are presented in chapter 5: the first is a stochastic two season model and the second is an entraining mixed layer model with a fixed mixed layer annual cycle. These models are used to investigate some of the factors, such as the diff erence between the summer and winter mixed layer depth, that influence the re-emergence mechanism. The impact of interannual mixed layer depth variability on the re-emergence mechanism is then investigated using the model of Stevenson [36]. In chapters 6 and 7, the impact of local Ekman pumping and associated Rossby wave induced vertical motion on the sea surface temperature, the mixed layer and the re-emergence mechanism are investigated.

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