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Focusing on the Kuroshio Extension, a boundary-current extension in the North Pacific Ocean, the authors compare coupled models that resolve ocean-eddy-scale (about 10 km) air-sea heat exchange with models that do not. They show that ocean eddies drain energy from the current extensions, and that coupling of an eddy-resolving atmosphere model weakens the eddies by removing heat from warm ocean eddies and injecting heat into cold ones. An implication of this study is that the stronger current simulated by coupled models will deliver heat away from the western boundary into the ocean interior, as observed, and that this will improve climate prediction. [Source: Nature | News & Views]
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