# Imprint of Mesoscale Eddies on Air-Sea Interaction in the Tropical Atlantic Ocean
## 4 Discussion
### Relationship between Heat Flux and Precipitation Anomalies within Eddies  
Despite the lower number of detected eddies near equatorial regions (Figure 4a,b), the ITCZ is characterized by a relatively high mean values of LHF and SHF anomalies \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Cyclonic Eddies**} & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Anticyclonic Eddies**} \\ \cline{2-11}  & **Number** & **SST’** & **LHF’** & **SHF’** & **IRF’** & **Number** & **SST’** & **LHF’** & **SHF’** & **IRF’** \\  & **(\%)** & **(\({}^{\circ}\)C)** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** & **(\%)** & **(\%)** & **(\({}^{\circ}\)C)** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** & **(W m\({}^{-2}\))** \\ \hline Warm- & \multirow{2}{*}{\begin{tabular}{c} core \\ eddies \\ \end{tabular} } & 145,868 & 0.12 \(\pm\) & 1.5 \(\pm\) & 0.5 \(\pm\) & 0.73 \(\pm\) & 196,989 & 0.16 \(\pm\) & 4.10 \(\pm\) & 1.15 \(\pm\) & 0.92 \(\pm\) \\  & (39.7 \%) & 0.05 \({}^{\ast}\) & 2.09 & 0.60 & 0.27 & (59.8 \%) & 0.06 & 2.27 & 0.67 & 0.33 \\ \hline Cold- & \multirow{2}{*}{\begin{tabular}{c} core \\ eddies \\ \end{tabular} } & 221,785 & \(-\)0.17 \(\pm\) & \(-\)4.60 \(\pm\) & \(-\)1.36 \(\pm\) & \(-\)0.96 \(\pm\) & 132,231 & \(-\)0.13 \(\pm\) & \(-\)2.78 \(\pm\) & \(-\)0.80 \(\pm\) & \(-\)0.79 \(\pm\) \\  & (60.3 \%) & 0.08 & 2.14 & 0.63 & 0.40 & (40.2 \%) & 0.06 & 2.00 & 0.63 & 0.40 \\ \hline Total & \
\begin{tabular}{c} 367,653 \\ (100 \%) \\ \end{tabular} & – & – & – & – &
\begin{tabular}{c} 329,220 \\ (100\%) \\ \end{tabular} & – & – & – & – & – & – & – & – & – \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* mean values \(\pm\) one standard deviation.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Warm-core and cold-core eddies with their mean SST, LHF, SHF and IRF anomalies over 2010–2017 period. Figure 14: Schematic representation of the contribution of (**a**) non-axisymmetric and (**b**,**c**) axisymmetric components to the net latent and sensible heat fluxes. The considered eddy in (**a**) has a counterclockwise rotation direction. within eddies. Moreover the fraction of the contribution of mesoscale activities relative to the total variability was evaluated to 20-30%, highlighting the role that mesoscale eddies would play in the air-sea interaction and on cloud formation in the ITCZ. However, the ITCZ represents an area of high atmospheric convection processes and heavy precipitations area,thus, a high heat flux anomalies is expected and may explain the observed anomalies within eddies in this region. Observations indicate that beneath the ITCZ, especially east of 35\({}^{\circ}\)W (see black box in Figure 12), higher positive PR anomalies within warm-core eddies are located south of \(\sim\)5\({}^{\circ}\)N (latitude of the mean location of the ITCZ), while within cold-core eddies, higher negative PR anomalies are almost centered on the ITCZ, extending from \(\sim\)5\({}^{\circ}\)N to \(\sim\)8\({}^{\circ}\)N (Figure 12a,b). As shown by the correlation between the total heat flux and PR anomalies (Figure 12c), the observed PR anomalies corroborated well with the SHF and LHF anomalies in the defined area. Indeed, SHF and LHF anomalies within warm-core eddies are relatively higher south of the mean location of the ITCZ, compared with anomalies in the northern part (Figure 9a,c). In contrast, within cold-core eddies, negative PR anomalies are almost centered on the mean location of the ITCZ (Figure 9b,d), highlighting the influence that eddies might have on PR in this area. This correlation is weak (between \(\sim\)2 and 8\({}^{\circ}\)N), but significant (\(p\)-value \(\approx\) 0.05). The observed weak correlations might be explained by the fact that evaporation and PR processes do not occur instantly in space and time, particularly beneath the ITCZ, where higher heat flux and PR anomalies are observed. Indeed, the propagation of eddies, coupled with the displacement of atmospheric air masses and precipitating clouds, can induce a potential spatio-temporal phase shift between the eddy signature on heat fluxes and PR.