Mesoscale and submesoscale mechanisms behind asymmetric cooling and phytoplankton blooms induced by hurricanes: a comparison between an open ocean case and a continental shelf sea case

Abstract

Right-side bias in both sea surface cooling and phytoplankton blooms is often observed in the wake of hurricanes in the Northern Hemisphere. This idealized hurricane modeling study uses a coupled biological-physical model to understand the underlying mechanisms behind hurricane-induced cooling and phytoplankton bloom asymmetry. Both a deep ocean case and a continental shelf sea case are considered and contrasted. Model analyses show that while right-side asymmetric mixing due to inertial oscillations and restratification from strong right-side recirculation cells contributes to bloom asymmetry in the open ocean, the well-mixed condition in the continental shelf sea inhibits formation of recirculation cells, and the convergence of water onto the shelf is a more important process for bloom asymmetry.