The Energetics of Fine-Scale Air-Sea Interactions
Abstract
The Earth's oceanic energy cycle is a multiscale system governed by the complex interactions of oceanic, atmospheric, and wave processes. Significant progress has been made in understanding energy exchange at planetary scales. However, challenges remain at the mesoscale and submesoscale levels. Processes such as mesoscale eddies, submesoscale flows, and internal waves drive intricate energy transfers at these scales. These fine-scale interactions influence the oceanic energy budget through two primary feedback mechanisms: thermal feedback (TFB) and current feedback (CFB). TFB mainly depletes oceanic potential energy, while CFB induces a sink of kinetic energy, influencing the kinetic energy pathway. Despite recent advancements, the full impacts of these interactions on the ocean, atmosphere, and climate remain poorly understood. This review synthesizes the current understanding of finescale air-sea energetics and their associated effects on the ocean, the atmosphere and the climate. It also explores the contributions of submesoscale and high-frequency processes, and highlights research gaps. We discuss missing pieces of knowledge, particularly regarding windwave effects. Finally, we propose future research directions, emphasizing the need for new observational platforms and next-generation modeling frameworks to capture these interactions and their impact on global climate dynamics 1
SIGNIFICANT STATEMENTThe ocean plays a central role in regulating Earth's climate by storing, transporting, and dissipating energy. While large-scale ocean processes are relatively well understood, much of the energy exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere actually occurs at smaller scales that are still poorly represented in climate models. This review focuses on these fine-scale interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and surface waves, which strongly influence ocean currents, heat uptake, and air-sea exchanges. By clarifying how these processes redistribute and dissipate energy, the research helps explain how small-scale motions can shape large-scale climate behavior. Improving our understanding of these mechanisms is essential for developing more accurate weather and climate predictions, anticipating changes in extreme events, and better assessing the ocean's response to ongoing climate change.
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BibTeX
@article{renault2026energetics,
title = {{The Energetics of Fine-Scale Air-Sea Interactions}},
author = {Lionel Renault and Jacob O Wenegrat and Hyodae Seo and Patrick Marchesiello},
journal = {Annual Review of Marine Science},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1146/((please},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05740131v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - The Energetics of Fine-Scale Air-Sea Interactions
AU - Lionel Renault
AU - Jacob O Wenegrat
AU - Hyodae Seo
AU - Patrick Marchesiello
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/06
JO - Annual Review of Marine Science
DO - 10.1146/((please
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05740131v1
AB - The Earth's oceanic energy cycle is a multiscale system governed by the complex interactions of oceanic, atmospheric, and wave processes. Significant progress has been made in understanding energy exchange at planetary scales. However, challenges remain at the mesoscale and submesoscale levels. Processes such as mesoscale eddies, submesoscale flows, and internal waves drive intricate energy transfers at these scales. These fine-scale interactions influence the oceanic energy budget through two primary feedback mechanisms: thermal feedback (TFB) and current feedback (CFB). TFB mainly depletes oceanic potential energy, while CFB induces a sink of kinetic energy, influencing the kinetic energy pathway. Despite recent advancements, the full impacts of these interactions on the ocean, atmosphere, and climate remain poorly understood. This review synthesizes the current understanding of finescale air-sea energetics and their associated effects on the ocean, the atmosphere and the climate. It also explores the contributions of submesoscale and high-frequency processes, and highlights research gaps. We discuss missing pieces of knowledge, particularly regarding windwave effects. Finally, we propose future research directions, emphasizing the need for new observational platforms and next-generation modeling frameworks to capture these interactions and their impact on global climate dynamics 1 SIGNIFICANT STATEMENTThe ocean plays a central role in regulating Earth's climate by storing, transporting, and dissipating energy. While large-scale ocean processes are relatively well understood, much of the energy exchange between the ocean and the atmosphere actually occurs at smaller scales that are still poorly represented in climate models. This review focuses on these fine-scale interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and surface waves, which strongly influence ocean currents, heat uptake, and air-sea exchanges. By clarifying how these processes redistribute and dissipate energy, the research helps explain how small-scale motions can shape large-scale climate behavior. Improving our understanding of these mechanisms is essential for developing more accurate weather and climate predictions, anticipating changes in extreme events, and better assessing the ocean's response to ongoing climate change.
SN - 1941-1405
ER -