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Observation of western boundary current atmospheric convergence zones using scatterometer winds
Author(s) -
Pan Jiayi,
Yan XiaoHai,
Zheng Quanan,
Liu W. Timothy
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl015015
Subject(s) - scatterometer , convergence (economics) , convergence zone , boundary current , climatology , precipitation , current (fluid) , gulf stream , environmental science , wind speed , geology , boundary (topology) , atmospheric sciences , ocean current , meteorology , oceanography , geography , mathematics , mathematical analysis , economics , economic growth
A merged scatterometer wind data set from ERS‐1/2, NSCAT, and QuikSCAT missions was used to observe the atmospheric convergence zones (ACZs) caused by the western boundary currents, the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio. The long‐term means of the atmospheric convergence show the ACZs' spatial features, which are related to the precipitation patterns in these regions. Seasonal images of the ACZs were produced to show annual cycles of the ACZs, indicating that the intensities of the ACZs over these two regions strengthen in winter and weaken in summer. Furthermore, we calculated the total convergence over the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio ACZs, which is defined as the integral of the convergence over the ACZs. The interannual variability of the total convergence was extracted by using a multi‐stage filter, revealing that in response to strong El Niño events in 1991–92 and 1997–98, the total convergence reached maxima.