Defenses for Fall 2026

Ocean influence on the atmosphere on hourly to seasonal time scales

August 26, 2026

Kyle Shackelford

In the tropical warm pool region, the atmosphere forces upper ocean temperature and salinity through diurnal heating, nocturnal cooling, wind stirring, and surface freshening. As atmospherically-forced changes to the upper ocean accumulate, they also feed back to the atmosphere and influence atmospheric evolution. Ocean feedbacks to the atmosphere modify the short-term evolution of atmospheric…