The hurricane-induced decay of mesoscale eddies: an energy source for near-inertial waves
2025-12-27
Qianqian Ren, Yu Zhang, Wei Wang
Abstract
Oceanic mesoscale eddies represent the most energetic component of the ocean circulation; however, their decay routes remain elusive, leaving a key gap in our understanding of the oceanic energy cascade. Here we combine satellite data with mooring measurements from the South China Sea in 2014 to reveal a rapid decay of oceanic eddies following the passage of typhoons. This decay is accompanied by a substantial generation of internal waves with near-inertial frequency in the ocean interior. The temporal correspondence and quantitatively commensurate energy changes indicate a direct energy transfer from eddy to internal wave field. We propose that typhoon-induced perturbations trigger an adjustment process within the eddy, resulting in energy loss through the radiation of near-inertial waves. Quantitatively supported by numerical model simulations, this mechanism plays a crucial role in the evolution of mesoscale eddies and points to a previously overlooked interior source of oceanic internal waves.
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Data availability
All the data used directly for generating the figures in this study are archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17221258. The MASCS 1.0 dataset37 used in this paper are available at https://zenodo.org/records/12635331. The IBTrACS dataset38,39 are available at https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/international-best-track-archive. The sea level anomaly data distributed by AVISO are available at https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00148. The surface drifter data64 are provided by the Drifter Data Assembly Center of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/gdp/interpolated/data/all.php). The Argo profiling floats data59 are collected and made freely available by the international Argo Program and the national programs that contribute to it (https://argo.ucsd.edu, https://www.ocean-ops.org), as part of the Global Ocean Observing System. The WOA18 data60 can be downloaded from https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/world-ocean-atlas.
Code availability
The MITgcm model components are open source, which can be downloaded from https://mitgcm.org/source-code. The configuration of model simulations and the code for analysis in the study can be obtained from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17221258. The MATLAB_R2024b is used for plotting.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through Grant 42288101 of Y. Zhang and W. Wang.
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Y. Z. and W. W. conceived the project and developed data analysis methodology. Q. R. carried out data analyses and the model simulation, and wrote the manuscript. Y. Z. and W. W. reviewed and edited the manuscript.
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Ren, Q., Zhang, Y. & Wang, W. The hurricane-induced decay of mesoscale eddies: an energy source for near-inertial waves. Commun Earth Environ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03113-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03113-3