The Air-Sea Interaction (ASI) submesoscale - physics and impact - White-paper from the Lorentz-Center Workshop in Leiden, the Netherlands, Sept 2023

Oct 24, 2026

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A 2023 Lorentz Workshop in Leiden brought together atmospheric and oceanic scientists to address emerging physical questions about air-sea interaction (ASI) at submesoscales, spanning both ocean submesoscale and atmosphere mesoscale couplings. The white paper proposes a definition of the ASI submesoscale, outlines a hierarchy of potential interaction types, and formulates challenge questions for major ocean and atmosphere phenomena. It also identifies research opportunities to mobilize cross-disciplinary efforts and resolve the sources of variability affecting weather and climate models.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages44

Reading Time1 h 51 min

AccessFree to download

1 Submesoscale air-sea interaction: unknown source of variability?

Spatial scales and coherent structures

Limitations of current ASI understanding

Satellite and emerging high-resolution observations

Open questions in coupling and variability

Core challenge and modeling implications

The Air-Sea Interaction (ASI) submesoscale: physics and impact White-paper from the Lorentz-Center Workshop in Leiden, the Netherlands, Sept 2023 Authors Louise Nuijens, Jacob Wenegrat, Paco Lopez Dekker, Claudia Pasquero, Larry W. O’Neill, Fabrice Ardhuin, Alex Ayet, Peter Bechtold, William Bruch, Lucas C. Laurindo, Xuanyu Chen, Fabien Desbiolles, Ralph Foster, Ivy Frenger, Geet George, Rianne Giesen, Emily E. Hayden, Momme Hell, Suneil Iyer, Josh Kousal, Nathan Laxague, Luc Lenain, Mariana Maia Pacheco, Agostino N. Meroni, Shoshiro Minobe, Caroline Muller, Owen O’Driscoll, Vera Oerder, Nick Pizzo, Dian Putrasahan, Jean-Luc Redelsperger, Lionel Renault, Björn Rommen, Cesar Sauvage, Niklas Schneider, Mingming Shao, Pier Siebesma, Justin Small, Bjorn Stevens, Ad Stoffelen, Ehud Strobach, Peter Sullivan, Elizabeth J. Thompson, LuAnne Thompson, Igor Uchoa, Doug Vandemark, Bia Villas Boas, Bowen Yang, Dongxiao Zhang, Seth Zippel Abstract During a 2023 Lorentz Workshop in Leiden, the Netherlands, a diverse community working in atmospheric and oceanic sciences and in observations and modeling met to discuss emerging ideas and questions on physical air-sea interaction (ASI) processes at the ASI submesoscale, where submesoscale is meant to include both ocean submesoscale and atmosphere mesoscale interactions. This white paper presents a strategy to unravel this emerging research theme, introducing a proposed definition of the ASI submesoscale and a hierarchy of possible interactions, as well as leading challenge questions for different ocean and atmosphere phenomena. It also outlines opportunities to target these questions, inviting the scientific community to take up the challenge to combine efforts across the different disciplines. 1 Submesoscale air-sea interaction: unknown source of variability? Coherent structures in the ocean and atmosphere and at their interface are rich at scales spanning hundreds of meters to hundreds of kilometers. In the ocean, these are typically characterized as submesoscale or mesoscale phenomena, for example, sharp fronts and filaments near the edges of larger-scale features, and smaller eddies generated through instabilities of the surface mixedlayer [1](Figure 1) . In the atmosphere, these same spatial scales encompass mesoscale phenomena such as the organization of atmospheric convection into rolls, streets or clusters, cold pools from precipitation and shallow overturning circulations. To date, much of our understanding of physical air-sea interaction (ASI) comes from studying the larger end of the ocean mesoscale, which has traditionally been more accessible for satellitebased observations and numerical modeling. This has established the influence of mesoscale ocean features on convection and mixing in the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) and its subsequent depth, with impacts on cloudiness and precipitation, and feedbacks on winds and air-sea fluxes [2] . But advances in computational power and instrument-development now allow the rich fine-scale variability, which exists through the ocean mesoscale into the submesoscale, to be resolved and observed. A) B) ∆T of 1° C Figure 1. Example of the various scales of SST variability. A) Observations of the Gulf Stream from the NASA Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument, showing how sharp fronts are embedded in larger scale features such as western boundary currents and ocean mesoscale eddies. Panel adapted from [3] . B) Sharp sub-mesoscale features extend below the current resolution of satellite remote sensing, as evident in airborne infrared imagery, showing a coherent submesoscale vortex in the Santa Barbara channel. Panel adapted from [4] . At these scales a myriad of patterns can be found in (tropical) cloudiness and MABL circulations, whose link to an equally rich ocean structure is still subject to many open questions. The small horizontal length scales of ocean features (comparable to th

FAQs

What does the white paper mean by the ASI submesoscale?

It uses “ASI submesoscale” as a practical label for scales where both ocean submesoscale and atmosphere mesoscale interactions matter, and it proposes a working definition in the document’s strategy section.

Why is variability at the ASI submesoscale considered poorly understood?

Much ASI knowledge has relied on the larger end of ocean mesoscale, while links between fine-scale ocean structures and atmospheric patterns remain full of open questions and the coupling degree is largely unknown.

What is the key challenge the document highlights?

To determine how atmospheric and oceanic structures at roughly 200 m to 200 km influence air-sea interaction and the statistics of larger-scale circulations, including their role in weather and climate modeling.

Oct 24, 2026

Upload by Angel