Physical Processes Associated with the Tropical Atlantic SST Meridional Gradient

Abstract The major modes of seasonal sea surface temperature (SST) meridional gradient and their connection with some regional mean SST indices in the Atlantic Ocean are examined using reanalysis data. The focus of the work is on the evolution of the dominant mode of the meridional SST gradient in boreal spring and the associated physical processes. The spatial distribution of the dominant mode in boreal spring is a seesaw pattern, reflecting the opposite variation of the meridional SST gradient between the subtropical and tropical North Atlantic, which resulted from a coherent warming or cooling with maxima along 10°–15°N. It is confirmed that this mode is dominated by the wind–evaporation–SST feedback. The feedback persists a longer time in the western Atlantic than in the eastern. The contribution to the SST variation is mainly from latent heat flux. The surface longwave and shortwave cloud radiative forcings are mainly determined by low cloud cover variations. The authors also found that the thermodyn...