L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser l'influence des petites échelles spatiales de la température de surface de la mer (SST) au niveau d'un front océanique sur la variabilité du climat aux moyennes latitudes. Nous nous intéressons à l'effet du front de SST associé au Gulf Stream sur la couche limite atmosphérique marine et la troposphère libre, et sur la variabilité atmosphérique de grande échelle sur le bassin Atlantique Nord et l'Europe. L'approche utilisée repose sur la réalisation d'expériences numériques avec un modèle d'atmosphère global à haute résolution (environ 50 km aux moyennes latitudes), d'abord en configuration forcée par des SST journalières observées puis en configuration couplée avec un modèle d'océan dynamique. La première partie de cette thèse s'intéresse aux effets du forçage océanique de petite échelle spatiale et aux échelles de temps saisonnières à inter-annuelle sur l'atmosphère localement, et sur la variabilité de grande échelle sur le bassin Atlantique Nord. Deux ensembles (quatre membres) d'expériences forcées sont réalisées, l'une avec des SST globales à haute résolution (0.25°) et la deuxième où les SST sont lissées à 4° dans la région du Gulf Stream, de façon à filtrer la variabilité spatiale de petite échelle dans la zone de front. Localement, le modèle capture la réponse au forçage de petite échelle de la SST sur les variations de vent de petite échelle en hiver, mais la sous-estime d'un facteur 1/3 par rapport aux observations. L'évaluation du modèle par rapport aux réanalyses montrent que la variabilité spatiale de grande échelle (courant jet, régimes de temps) est bien reproduite par le modèle aux moyennes latitudes sur l'Atlantique Nord et l'Europe. La comparaison entre les deux expériences montre que les variations spatiales de petite échelle de la SST dans la région du Gulf Stream influencent en profondeur la colonne atmosphérique jusqu'à la troposphère libre (convergence des vents par ajustement hydrostatique en pression dans la couche limite, augmentation des flux de chaleur turbulents à la surface par la déstabilisation de la couche limite, augmentation des précipitations convectives sur la face chaude et diminution sur la face froide du front). Localement, les tempêtes extra-tropicales montrent un renforcement de la route dépressionnaire sur la partie sud (chaude) du front, et une diminution sur la partie nord (froide). Sur le reste du bassin Euro-Atlantique Nord, la réponse des tempêtes extra-tropicales aux petites échelles de SST dépend de la circulation de grande échelle. En particulier, nous montrons qu'une augmentation des tempêtes fortes sur le bassin Méditerranéen est associée à un renforcement du jet subtropical dans cette région. Nos analyses suggèrent que le déplacement et l'intensification de ce jet provient du changement d'occurrence des déferlements d'ondes de Rossby sur l'Atlantique Nord. La deuxième partie de cette thèse s'intéresse à l'effet des rétroactions atmosphériques sur les petites échelles spatiales de SST, et la sensibilité de l'interaction air-mer de petite échelle au couplage océan-atmosphère. Pour cela, on réalise des expériences de sensibilité à la résolution du front de SST dans la région du Gulf Stream avec le modèle couplé à haute résolution. Dans le modèle, le front est décalé vers le nord du fait d'un décollement tardif de la côte. L'intensité de l'interaction air-mer de petite échelle n'est pas significativement modifiée par rapport à la configuration forcée. Cependant l'effet des rétroactions atmosphérique, notamment via les flux turbulents à la surface, sur l'état moyen du front océanique tend à lisser le gradient de SST. La route dépressionnaire est également impactée et montre une augmentation du nombre de tempêtes et de leur intensité moyenne par rapport aux expériences forcées. La réponse des tempêtes au front de SST montre une augmentation locale du nombre de trajectoires de tempêtes, et une diminution significative sur l'Europe. / This thesis aims at analyzing the influence of small-scale spatial variability of the sea surface temperature (SST) over an oceanic front on the climate variability at mid-latitudes. We focus on the effect of the Gulf Stream SST front on the marine atmospheric boundary layer and the free troposphere, and on the large-scale atmospheric variability over the Euro-North Atlantic basin. We follow an approach based on numerical experiments with a high resolution (approximately 50 km at mid-latitudes) global atmospheric model, first forced with daily observed SST then coupled with a dynamical oceanic model. The first part of this thesis deal with the effects of small-scale oceanic forcing on the atmosphere locally and on the large-scale variability over the North Atlantic, at seasonal to inter-annual timescales. Two ensembles (with 4 members) of forced simulations are performed, the first one with global SST at high resolution (0.25°) and the other one with smoothed SST at 4° in the Gulf Stream region, in order to filter the small-scale spatial variability on the frontal area. Locally, the model captures the response of the SST small-scale forcing on the small-scale spatial variability of wind-speed at surface during winter, but with an underestimation of about 1/3 compared to the observations. The evaluation of the model compared to reanalysis shows that the large-scale spatial variability (jet stream, weather regimes) is well reproduce at mid-latitudes over North Atlantic and Europe. Comparison between the two experiments shows that the influence of small-scale spatial variations of the SST in the Gulf Stream region deeply affect the atmospheric column and reach the free troposphere (wind convergence at surface due to pressure adjustment in the boundary layer, turbulent heat fluxes at surface increase due to boundary layer destabilization, convective precipitations increase on the southern (warmer) part of the front and decrease on the northern (cooler) part). Locally, extra-tropical storms show an increase of the storm track on the warmer part of the front and a weakening on the cooler part. Over the Euro-North Atlantic domain, the storm track response to small-scale SST gradients show a strong dependency to the large-scale flow. In particular, we show that the strengthening of intense storm-tracks over the Mediterranean Sea is associated with a reinforcement of the sub-tropical jet in this region. Our analysis suggest that the displacement and reinforcement of the jet come from changes of Rossby wave breaking occurrences over the North Atlantic. The second part of this thesis deal with the influence of atmospheric feedbacks onto the small-scale SST spatial variability, and with the sensitivity of the small-scale air-sea interaction to the ocean-atmosphere coupling. We perform sensitivity experiments to the SST resolution in the Gulf Stream region with a coupled model at high resolution. Compared to the observations, the model show a northward shift of the front. Small-scale air-sea interaction strength is not significantly changed compared to the forced configuration. However the atmospheric feedbacks effects on the mean state of the front act to smooth the gradient, especially via turbulent heat fluxes at surface. The storm track is also impacted and show an increase in storm tracks density and intensity compared to forced experiments. The influence of the small-scale spatial variability of SST in the Gulf Stream region on the extra-tropical storms show a local increase of tracks, with a decrease over Europe.

This study examines the efficacy of Sentinel-1 Radial Velocity (RVL) imagery at determining the position of ocean current front features, using the Gulf Stream (GS) and Agulhas Current (AC) as case studies. Fronts derived from RVL imagery are compared to fronts derived from Sea Surface Temperature (SST) imagery, specifically Multi-scale Ultra-high Resolution Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (MURSST) data. In the case of the GS, front locations from the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) were also used for comparison. Only the northern walls of ocean current features are considered in this study, which is broken into three main steps: Preprocessing, front extraction, and front comparison. First, RVL imagery is selected from Sentinel-1 ocean products, preprocessed to remove antenna mispointing artifacts, and all products from the same orbit are combined into a single swath. Second, front features are extracted from both the RVL and MURSST imagery using a ridge detection algorithm, the main ocean current is chosen from all ridge features using a ranking algorithm, and the northern wall of this current is extracted. Third, the RVL, SST, and in the case of the GS, NAVOCEANO GS locations, features are compared using a symmetric Hausdorff Distance (HD) measure, and Mean Hausdorff Distance (MHD). In some cases, the automatic front extraction failed by either misclassifying an eddy or similar ocean feature as the ocean current in either the RVL or SST image or failed to extract the entire length of the front visible within the image. All the SST and RVL fronts were classified manually to determine the success rate of the automatic front extraction and to exclude failed front extractions from the analysis, as they are not accurate representations of the SST and RVL data’s ability to detect fronts. In special cases, the RVL image itself does not detect the entire ocean current, such that there are noticeable gaps in the ocean current. Similarly, in special cases the MURSST does not detect the entire ocean current. The automatic front extraction succeeded 65% of the time, including the special cases. The results demonstrated that RVL products were effective at determining the location of ocean fronts where the angle of the front's normal vector is within approximately 40° of the sensor’s azimuthal heading. A mean HD of 31.9 km and a mean MHD of 13.2 km was calculated for all front pairs over all study areas. The RVL fronts appeared consistently to the north of the SST fronts, with an average offset of 25.4 km between the centroids of the SST and RVL fronts. Positive correlations were noted between cloud coverage and MURSST error in both study regions. Several RVL images detected ocean currents in regions of high MURSST error where the MURSST did not detect the ocean currents, suggesting that RVL may provide more accuracy than SST-based products in clouded regions where there is no auxiliary data.

In non-rotating fluids, boundary-layer separation occurs when the nearly inviscid flow just outside a viscous boundary-layer experiences an appreciable deceleration due to a region of adverse pressure gradient. The fluid ceases to flow along the boundary due to a flow recirculation region close to the boundary. The flow is then said to be "detached." In recent decades, attention has shifted to the study of boundary-layer separation in a rotating reference frame due to its significance in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD). Since the Earth is a rotating sphere, the so-called β-plane approximation f = f0 + βy is often used to account for the inherent meridional variation of the Coriolis parameter, f, while still solving the governing equations on a plane. Numerical simulations of currents on the β-plane have been useful in understanding ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream, the Brazil Current, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to name a few. In this thesis, we first consider the problem of prograde flow past a cylindrical obstacle on the β-plane. The problem is governed by the barotropic vorticity equation and is solved using a numerical method that is a combination of a finite difference method and a spectral method. A modified form of the β-plane approximation is proposed to avoid computational difficulties. Results are given and discussed for flow past a circular cylinder at selected Reynolds numbers (Re) and non-dimensional β-parameters (β^). Results are then given and discussed for flow past an elliptic cylinder of a fixed aspect ratio (r = 0.2) and at two angles of inclination (90°, 15°) at selected Re and β^. In general, it is found that the β-effect acts to suppress boundary-layer separation and to allow Rossby waves to form in the exterior flow field. In the asymmetrical case of an inclined elliptic cylinder, the β-effect was found to constrain the region of vortex shedding to a small region near the trailing edge of the cylinder. The shed vortices were found to propagate around the trailing edge instead of in the expected downstream direction, as observed in the non-rotating case. The second problem considered in this thesis is the separation of western boundary currents from a curved coastline. This problem is also governed by the barotropic vorticity equation, and it is solved on an idealized model domain suitable for investigating the effects that boundary curvature has on the tendency of a boundary current to separate. The numerical method employed is a two-dimensional Chebyshev spectral collocation method and yields high order accuracy that helps to better resolve the boundary-layer dynamics in comparison to low-order methods. Results are given for a selection of boundary curvatures, non-dimensional β-parameters (β^), Reynolds numbers (Re), and Munk Numbers (Mu). In general, it is found than an increase in β^ will act to suppress boundary-layer separation. However, a sufficiently sharp obstacle can overcome the β-effect and force the boundary current to separate regardless of the value of β^. It is also found that in the inertial limit (small Mu, large Re) the flow region to the east of the primary boundary current is dominated by strong wave interactions and large eddies which form as a result of shear instabilities. In an interesting case of the inertial limit, strong waves were found to interact with the separation region, causing it to expand and propagate to the east as a large eddy. This idealized the mechanism by which western boundary currents such as the Gulf Stream generate eddies in the world's oceans.

In non-rotating fluids, boundary-layer separation occurs when the nearly inviscid flow just outside a viscous boundary-layer experiences an appreciable deceleration due to a region of adverse pressure gradient. The fluid ceases to flow along the boundary due to a flow recirculation region close to the boundary. The flow is then said to be "detached." In recent decades, attention has shifted to the study of boundary-layer separation in a rotating reference frame due to its significance in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (GFD). Since the Earth is a rotating sphere, the so-called β-plane approximation f = f0 + βy is often used to account for the inherent meridional variation of the Coriolis parameter, f, while still solving the governing equations on a plane. Numerical simulations of currents on the β-plane have been useful in understanding ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream, the Brazil Current, and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to name a few. In this thesis, we first consider the problem of prograde flow past a cylindrical obstacle on the β-plane. The problem is governed by the barotropic vorticity equation and is solved using a numerical method that is a combination of a finite difference method and a spectral method. A modified form of the β-plane approximation is proposed to avoid computational difficulties. Results are given and discussed for flow past a circular cylinder at selected Reynolds numbers (Re) and non-dimensional β-parameters (β^). Results are then given and discussed for flow past an elliptic cylinder of a fixed aspect ratio (r = 0.2) and at two angles of inclination (90°, 15°) at selected Re and β^. In general, it is found that the β-effect acts to suppress boundary-layer separation and to allow Rossby waves to form in the exterior flow field. In the asymmetrical case of an inclined elliptic cylinder, the β-effect was found to constrain the region of vortex shedding to a small region near the trailing edge of the cylinder. The shed vortices were found to propagate around the trailing edge instead of in the expected downstream direction, as observed in the non-rotating case. The second problem considered in this thesis is the separation of western boundary currents from a curved coastline. This problem is also governed by the barotropic vorticity equation, and it is solved on an idealized model domain suitable for investigating the effects that boundary curvature has on the tendency of a boundary current to separate. The numerical method employed is a two-dimensional Chebyshev spectral collocation method and yields high order accuracy that helps to better resolve the boundary-layer dynamics in comparison to low-order methods. Results are given for a selection of boundary curvatures, non-dimensional β-parameters (β^), Reynolds numbers (Re), and Munk Numbers (Mu). In general, it is found than an increase in β^ will act to suppress boundary-layer separation. However, a sufficiently sharp obstacle can overcome the β-effect and force the boundary current to separate regardless of the value of β^. It is also found that in the inertial limit (small Mu, large Re) the flow region to the east of the primary boundary current is dominated by strong wave interactions and large eddies which form as a result of shear instabilities. In an interesting case of the inertial limit, strong waves were found to interact with the separation region, causing it to expand and propagate to the east as a large eddy. This idealized the mechanism by which western boundary currents such as the Gulf Stream generate eddies in the world's oceans.