Air–Sea Interactions among Oceanic Low-Level Cloud, Sea Surface Temperature, and Atmospheric Circulation on an Intraseasonal Time Scale in the Summertime North Pacific Based on Satellite Data Analysis

Abstract

Low-level cloud plays a key role in modulating air–sea interaction processes and sea surface temperature (SST) variability. The present study investigated the evolution process of oceanic low-level cloud cover (LCC) and related air–sea interaction processes on an intraseasonal time scale in the summertime (June–October) North Pacific (30°–40°N, 165°–175°E) based on satellite observational and reanalysis datasets from 2003 to 2016. The intraseasonal time scale (20–100 days) is dominant not only for the LCC, but also for LCC controlling factors, that is, SST, estimated inversion strength (EIS), and horizontal temperature advection (Tadv). To reveal the lead–lag relationship among these variables, we conducted phase composite analysis with a bandpass filter based on the intraseasonal variability (ISV) of LCC. It suggests that ISV of LCC leads to that of SST and that horizontal dry–cold advection from the poleward region leads to increasing LCC and decreasing SST. The increasing LCC corresponds to a positive relative humidity (RH) anomaly in the lower troposphere, which is due to adiabatic cooling with shallow convection, vertical moisture advection, and meridional RH advection associated with the anomalous cold Tadv. Heat budget analysis of the ocean mixed layer suggests the importance of anomalous dry–cold advection for cooling SST, not only via enhanced latent heat release but also via decreased downward shortwave radiation at the sea surface according to cloud radiative effect with a positive LCC anomaly. Determining the detailed lead–lag relationship between LCC and its controlling factor is a good approach to understand mechanisms of the local processes of both low-level cloud evolution and air–sea interaction.