New research uncovers unexpected ways atmospheric winds impact ocean eddies, influencing ocean weather patterns with greater complexity than previously understood.
Much like the windy weather patterns that shape the Earth’s surface, the planet’s oceans experience their own distinct weather patterns. These patterns, known as eddies, are circular currents of water typically about 100 kilometers wide.
A new study by scientists at the University of Rochester, using satellite imagery and high-resolution climate model data, challenges previous assumptions and offers new insight into how surface and ocean weather patterns interact.
Scientists formerly believed atmospheric wind had a damping effect, slowing the eddies, but the study, published in Nature Communications, offers a new theory that better explains the complexities of how atmospheric wind affects eddies.
Wind’s Impact on Eddies Varies by Direction
“It’s actually more interesting than what people had previously thought,” says Hussein Aluie, a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Mathematics and senior scientist at the University’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics “There’s a marked asymmetry in how the wind affects these motions, and it depends on the direction they spin.”
Aluie says that prevailing winds that move longitudinally across the globe, such as the westerlies and trade winds, will slow the eddies when they move in the opposite direction but energize them if their spin is aligned.
In between the swirling eddies are intricate tangles of ocean weather patterns known as strain. While strain patterns aren’t as easily distinguished by the naked eye, Aluie says they account for about half of the ocean’s kinetic energy and are damped or energized by wind in similar ways as eddies.
Implications for Climate Models and Ocean Observation
“The new energy pathways between the atmosphere and the ocean that we discovered can help design better ocean observation systems and improve climate models,” says Shikhar Rai ’23 PhD (mechanical engineering), first author of the study and a postdoctoral investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
In addition to improving climate modeling, being able to better predict the ocean’s weather patterns could have practical applications for fisheries and help better direct commercial ships where to go.
Reference: “Atmospheric wind energization of ocean weather” by Shikhar Rai, J. Thomas Farrar and Hussein Aluie, 30 January 2025, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56310-1
The study was supported by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, focused largely on the mechanical interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. In future studies, Aluie plans to investigate the role eddies play in transporting energy between the oceans and atmosphere.
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1 Comment
Changes in the earth’s climate and winds have nothing to do with greenhouse gases, perhaps greenhouses or eddies are droughts and seas that affect the movement of clouds and the creation of wind to move air masses due to the difference in temperature. Desert areas have warm air masses, but the mountains have cold air and this temperature difference will cause the cold air front to move towards the warm air front and cause changes in the cloud masses and their circulation in the sky