Upper ocean response to Hurricane Gonzalo (2014): Salinity effects revealed by targeted and sustained underwater glider observations

During October 2014, Hurricane Gonzalo traveled within 85 km from the location of an underwater glider situated north of Puerto Rico. Observations collected before, during, and after the passage of this hurricane were analyzed to improve our understanding of the upper ocean response to hurricane winds. The main finding in this study is that salinity potentially played an important role on changes observed in the upper ocean; a near-surface barrier layer likely suppressed the hurricane-induced upper ocean cooling, leading to smaller than expected temperature changes. Poststorm observations also revealed a partial recovery of the ocean to prestorm conditions 11 days after the hurricane. Comparison with a coupled ocean-atmosphere hurricane model indicates that model-observations discrepancies are largely linked to salinity effects described. Results presented in this study emphasize the value of underwater glider observations for improving our knowledge of how the ocean responds to tropical cyclone winds and for tropical cyclone intensification studies and forecasts.

[1]  Janet Sprintall,et al.  Evidence of the barrier layer in the surface layer of the tropics , 1992 .

[2]  Christopher W. Landsea,et al.  A Climatology of Intense (or Major) Atlantic Hurricanes , 1993 .

[3]  Tommy D. Dickey,et al.  Upper-Ocean Temperature Response to Hurricane Felix as Measured by the Bermuda Testbed Mooring , 1998 .

[4]  N. Walker,et al.  Hurricane‐forced upwelling and chlorophyll a enhancement within cold‐core cyclones in the Gulf of Mexico , 2005 .

[5]  W. Paul Menzel,et al.  State of the Climate in 2014 , 2015 .

[6]  S. Tav O G O N I, M A R K D E M A R I A,et al.  Applications of Satellite-Derived Ocean Measurements to Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasting , 2009 .

[7]  John W. Miles,et al.  On the stability of heterogeneous shear flows , 1961, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[8]  Gustavo Goni,et al.  Effects of a Warm Oceanic Feature on Hurricane Opal , 2000 .

[9]  Molly O. Baringer,et al.  State of the Climate in 2009 , 2010 .

[10]  H. Tolman,et al.  Performance of Ocean Simulations in the Coupled HWRF-HYCOM Model , 2014 .

[11]  Bertrand Chapron,et al.  Haline hurricane wake in the Amazon/Orinoco plume: AQUARIUS/SACD and SMOS observations , 2012 .

[12]  Gustavo Goni,et al.  Application of Oceanic Heat Content Estimation to Operational Forecasting of Recent Atlantic Category 5 Hurricanes , 2008 .

[13]  Jerrold E. Marsden,et al.  Richardson number criterion for the nonlinear stability of three-dimensional stratified flow , 1984 .

[14]  A. Satyanarayana,et al.  Response of upper ocean and impact of barrier layer on Sidr cyclone induced sea surface cooling , 2013, Ocean Science Journal.

[15]  K. Brink.  Observations of the Response of Thermocline Currents to a Hurricane , 1989 .

[16]  R. Saravanan,et al.  Ocean barrier layers’ effect on tropical cyclone intensification , 2012, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[17]  P. Black,et al.  Ocean Response to a Hurricane. Part I: Observations , 1987 .

[18]  G. Goñi,et al.  Low‐salinity pools at Barbados, West Indies: Their origin, frequency, and variability , 2000 .

[19]  F. Muller‐Karger,et al.  Amazon River water in the northeastern Caribbean Sea and its effect on larval reef fish assemblages during April 2009 , 2014 .

[20]  T. Prasad,et al.  Upper‐ocean response to Hurricane Ivan in a 1/25° nested Gulf of Mexico HYCOM , 2007 .

[21]  R. Saravanan,et al.  The barrier layer of the Atlantic warmpool: formation mechanism and influence on the mean climate , 2012 .

[22]  J. Morell,et al.  Remote continental forcing of phytoplankton biogeochemistry: Observations across the “Caribbean‐Atlantic front” , 2003 .

[23]  J. Knaff,et al.  Ocean heat content for tropical cyclone intensity forecasting and its impact on storm surge , 2013, Natural Hazards.

[24]  George Z. Forristall,et al.  Forced Stage Response to a Moving Hurricane , 1994 .

[25]  Chun-Chieh Wu,et al.  Upper-Ocean Thermal Structure and the Western North Pacific Category 5 Typhoons. Part I: Ocean Features and the Category 5 Typhoons’ Intensification , 2008 .

[26]  S. Levitus,et al.  World ocean atlas 2009 , 2010 .

[27]  J. Price,et al.  Upper Ocean Response to a Hurricane , 1981 .