Extratropical-cyclone-induced sea surface temperature  anomalies in the 2013–2014 winter

Dacre, Helen F.; Josey, Simon A.; Grant, Alan L. M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-27-2020

Articles | Volume 1, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-27-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-1-27-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 1, issue 1

Research article

|

04 Feb 2020

Research article |

| 04 Feb 2020

Extratropical-cyclone-induced sea surface temperature anomalies in the 2013–2014 winter

Helen F. Dacre, Simon A. Josey, and Alan L. M. Grant

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Final revised paper (published on 04 Feb 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 13 Sep 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of the manuscript entitled "Extratropical cyclone induced sea surface temperature anomalies in the 2013/14 winter"', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Oct 2019
- AC1: 'Response to reviewer 1 comments', Helen Dacre, 20 Dec 2019
RC2: 'Review of the manuscript', Anonymous Referee #2, 11 Oct 2019
- AC2: 'Response to reviewer 2 comments', Helen Dacre, 20 Dec 2019
RC3: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #3, 18 Oct 2019
- AC3: 'Response to reviewer 3 comments', Helen Dacre, 20 Dec 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Helen Dacre on behalf of the Authors (20 Dec 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (08 Jan 2020) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (11 Jan 2020)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (15 Jan 2020)

For final publication, the manuscript should be

accepted as is

accepted subject to technical corrections

accepted subject to minor revisions

reconsidered after major revisions

I would be willing to review the revised paper, if the editor considers it necessary.

I am not willing to review the revised paper.

rejected

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The revised manuscript is clearer and many of my original comments have been addressed. I think the paper is organised better now.

I still have a couple of concerns:

I am still not convinced that the mask applied to the cyclones is good enough to confidently discuss the effect of cold fronts. As shown by Schemm and Wernli (2018), not all cyclones even in the North Atlantic, are attended by a detectable front. Given that in this manuscript the focus is on the most intense synoptic eddies, the chances that those systems have fronts are higher, but what are the chances that the location of a cyclone during the previous 30hours gives you the location of its cold front?

First, it would be nice if that was justified in the paper.

Second, as a direct frontal identification is not applied here, it should be made clear that often you mean the theoretical location of fronts.

2. In fig. 12c there is an area of significant warm SST anomaly in the Gulf Stream area. It first looked to me like a shift of the Gulf Stream to the north during cyclone events. However, if I got it right, the SST change shown here is due to the air-sea interaction. Could you discuss this warming anomaly in the text and give some comments on what might be causing it.

Lastly, in the acknowledgement it is staled that “Information on how to obtain the cyclone identification and tracking algorithm can be found from http://www.nerc-essc.ac.uk/ kih/TRACK/Track.html”.
However, this is password protected.
Could you please check if that is in agreement with the journal requirements.

Hide

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (17 Jan 2020) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

AR by Helen Dacre on behalf of the Authors (24 Jan 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (26 Jan 2020) by Shira Raveh-Rubin

Short summary

The 2013–2014 winter sea surface temperature (SST) was anomalously cool in the mid-North Atlantic region. We investigate the processes by which cyclones can lead to SST cooling and their contribution towards the 2013–2014 SST anomaly. We find that cyclones induce a cold wake, which extends along the cyclones' cold front. Cyclones account for over 40 % of the observed cooling in the mid-North Atlantic. Thus, cyclones play a major role in determining the extreme 2013–2014 winter SST cooling.