The Gulf Stream and Kuroshio Current are synchronized

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 374; no. 6565; pp. 341 - 346
• Main Authors: Kohyama, Tsubasa, Yamagami, Yoko, Miura, Hiroaki, Kido, Shoichiro, Tatebe, Hiroaki, Watanabe, Masahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 15.10.2021
• Subjects: Air temperature; Atmospheric circulation; Atmospheric General Circulation Models; Coupled modes; General circulation models; Global climate models; Gulf Stream; Jet streams (meteorology); Northern Hemisphere; Ocean currents; Oceans; Satellite observation; Sea surface temperature; Spatial discrimination; Spatial resolution; Synchronism; Synchronization; Temperature; Time; Time synchronization; Tropical environments
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.abh3295

Observations show that sea surface temperatures along the Gulf Stream and the Kuroshio Current tend to synchronize at decadal time scales. This synchronization, which we refer to as the boundary current synchronization (BCS), is reproduced in global climate models with high spatial resolution. Both in observations and model simulations, BCS is associated with meridional migrations of the atmospheric jet stream. Changes in the strength and path of the ocean currents associated with the jet shifts lead to the synchronicity of surface temperatures. Numerical simulations using a conceptual model and an atmospheric general circulation model are consistent with a notion that BCS is an interbasin air-sea coupled mode. Air temperature patterns similar to the one associated with BCS have been repeatedly observed, including in July of 1994 and 2018.