A storm-centered perspective of midlatitude near-inertial wave generation

RESUMO

Near-inertial waves (NIWs) generated by extratropical storms provide a major pathway for transferring atmospheric energy into the ocean, yet what determines the efficiency of this energy transfer at the level of individual storms remains poorly understood. Here, using a slab ocean model forced by ERA5 reanalysis and analyzed in storm-relative coordinates, we investigate NIW generation across three temporal scales: from the instantaneous structure of individual storms, through their life cycle, to variability across storms. Instantaneous storm structure reveals that the spatial layout of wind stress and storm propagation provides the required time evolution and rotation to excite a localized maximum in wind work on the right side of storm tracks, much like tropical cyclones do. Following storms through their life cycle further reveals that wind work peaks one day after cyclone genesis, about one day before storms reach their maximum intensity. This offset arises because storm translation slows during intensification, reducing the propagation-induced wind-stress tendency, while concurrent poleward propagation increases the Coriolis parameter and reduces the alignment between winds and near-inertial currents. Due to the temporal lag, regions of climatologically high NIW forcing are located upstream of the North Pacific storm-track maximum. Finally, examining variability across storms, we show that storm intensity, propagation speed, and latitude explain most of the variability in NIW generation, but not in extreme events. Focusing on extreme events, we find that the strongest NIW-generating storms feature colder cold sectors, which destabilize the marine boundary layer and enhance downward momentum transfer to the ocean surface.