Submitted on October 20, 2008
Accepted on March 11, 2009
The Role of Aerosols in the Evolution of Tropical North Atlantic Ocean Temperature Anomalies
Amato T. Evan 1*, Daniel J. Vimont 2, Andrew K. Heidinger 3, James P. Kossin 4, Ralf Bennartz 2
1 Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.; Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
2 Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
3 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), 1225 West Dayton Street, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
4 NOAA/NESDIS/National Climatic Data Center, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Amato T. Evan , E-mail: atevan{at}wisc.edu
Observations and models demonstrate that northern tropical Atlantic surface temperatures are sensitive to regional changes in stratospheric volcanic and tropospheric mineral aerosols. However, it is unknown if the temporal variability of these aerosols is a key factor in the evolution of ocean temperature anomalies. Here, we elucidate this question by using 26 years of satellite data to drive a simple physical model for estimating the temperature response of the ocean mixed layer to changes in aerosol loadings. Our results suggest that 69% of the recent upward trend, and 67% of the detrended and 5-year low pass filtered variance, in northern tropical Atlantic Ocean temperatures is the mixed layer’s response to regional variability in aerosols.
