Figure - available from: Geophysical Research Letters
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Mean evaporation duct property anomalies (the top row shows EDHa, and the middle row shows EDSa) within the radius after compositing according to the eddy characteristic parameters of (a), (d) the eddy amplitude, (b), (e) eddy radius, and (c), (f) eddy lifespan, where the red dots and fitted curve indicate AEs and the blue dots indicate CEs. Relative importance (bottom row) of the different eddy characteristic parameters to evaporation duct property anomalies, where the red columns denote AEs and the blue columns denote CEs. The partial correlation analysis results by controlling for other eddy feature parameters are also shown in panels (a–f). Symbol * means that the result is significant at a 99% confidence level through t‐tests.
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Plain Language Summary
Mesoscale eddies typically carry water with different characteristics from the surrounding environment, allowing them to transport moisture and energy at the ocean–atmosphere interface, thereby influencing the characteristic properties of evaporation ducts over the sea. To date, researchers have focused on the effects of vari...
Citations
... Although anticyclonic and cyclonic eddies (AE/CE) coexist in the ocean in similar proportions and spatial distributions (Chelton, Gaube, et al., 2011), researchers often discuss their characteristics based on their polarities, such as AE/CE tend to deepen/shoal the thermocline in formation (McGillicuddy, 2016). Asymmetric polarities of eddies also lead to divergent impacts on sea surface temperature anomalies, mixed layer depth, evaporation duct anomalies, surface heat fluxes, and so on (Frenger et al., 2013;Gao et al., 2024;Gaube et al., 2019;Lv et al., 2022). For example, utilizing satellite altimetry data, Morrow et al. (2004) showed that AE and CE tend to propagate equatorward and poleward, respectively. ...
Plain Language Summary
Mesoscale eddies can transport such as water masses and particles within them, and influence the surrounding waters by leakage processes during the movement. Usually, the leakage features of anticyclonic eddies (AE) are assumed to be similar to those of cyclonic eddies (CE). However, both observation and simulation reveal that AE and CE tend to choose different sides to discard the water masses or particles within them, this divergent leakage feature is still poorly investigated in the global ocean. Results display that AE and CE, in the Northern Hemisphere, tend to release the water masses by the left and right sides along their tracks, respectively. And they choose the other side in the Southern Hemisphere. Analyses imply that the inverse relative vorticity gradient between AE and CE contributes to this divergent leakage pattern. This study offers a new perspective on the leakage of mesoscale eddies and may also be important in investigating the distribution of some oceanic particles/materials such as fish larvae, and microplastics.
