{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T02:12:02Z","timestamp":1760148722822,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,7]],"date-time":"2023-06-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1686096000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Centers for Environmental Information, NOAA","award":["2000012639"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2000012639"]}]},{"name":"Early-Career Research Fellowship from the Gulf Research Program of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine","award":["2000012639"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2000012639"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Winter storms occur in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) every few years, but there are not many studies on oceanic responses to severe winter storms. Although usually considered less destructive than hurricanes, they can result in cumulative damages. Winter Storm Outbreak of February 2021 (WSO21), the most intense winter storm to impact Texas and the GoM in 30 years, passed over the western GoM and brought severe cold to the GoM coastal regions, which caused a sudden cooling of the ocean surface, resulting in an extensive loss of marine life. In this study, we analyze multiple datasets from both in situ and satellite observations to examine the oceanic changes due to WSO21 in order to improve our understanding of oceanic responses to winter storms. Although the pre-storm sea surface temperature (SST) was 1\u20132 \u00b0C warmer than normal, severe coastal cold spells caused a significant cooling of the order of \u22123 \u00b0C to \u22125 \u00b0C during WSO21 and a \u22121 \u00b0C average cooling in the mixed layer (ML) over the western GoM. Net surface heat loss played a primary role in the upper ocean cooling during WSO21 and explained more than 50% of the cooling that occurred. Convective mixing due to surface cooling and turbulent mixing induced by enhanced wind speeds significantly increase the surface ML in the western GoM. Apart from rapid changes in SST and heat fluxes due to air-sea interactions, persistent upwelling brings nutrients to the surface and can produce coastal \u201cwinter\u201d blooms along the Texas and Mexico coast. Prominent salinity increases along the coastal regions during and after WSO21 were another indicator of wind-induced coastal upwelling. Our study demonstrates the utility of publicly-available datasets for studying the impact of winter storms on the ocean surface.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs15122967","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,8]],"date-time":"2023-06-08T02:02:28Z","timestamp":1686189748000},"page":"2967","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Oceanic Responses to the Winter Storm Outbreak of February 2021 in the Gulf of Mexico from In Situ and Satellite Observations"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3727-1379","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhankun","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA"}]},{"given":"Korak","family":"Saha","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA"},{"name":"Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA"}]},{"given":"Ebenezer S.","family":"Nyadjro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Northern Gulf Institute, Mississippi State University, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529, USA"},{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information, Stennis Space Center, MS 39529, USA"}]},{"given":"Yongsheng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA"},{"name":"Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20740, USA"}]},{"given":"Boyin","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information, Asheville, NC 28801, USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6409-0645","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"James","family":"Reagan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"NOAA\u2019s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), Silver Spring, MD 20910, USA"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,6,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1116","DOI":"10.1126\/science.abi9167","article-title":"Linking Arctic Variability and Change with Extreme Winter Weather in the United States","volume":"373","author":"Cohen","year":"2021","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102684","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pocean.2021.102684","article-title":"Marine Cold-Spells","volume":"198","author":"Schlegel","year":"2021","journal-title":"Prog. 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