Long-range effects of the Hawaiian Islands on the Pacific Ocean-atmosphere system

Ocean islands modify surface winds on the leeside. Such an island wake generally dissipates quickly and lasts only a few hundred kilometres downwind. Using new satellite data, we detect a wake trailing behind the Hawaiian Islands for 3000 km, a length many times greater than observed anywhere else on Earth. The Islands´ influence is not limited to the wind velocity field but is found on the ocean current, surface and subsurface ocean temperature, and boundary layer clouds. Standing in the path of the broad and steady trade winds, the Islands trigger an ocean-atmosphere interaction that provides the feedback to sustain the wake over this great distance, leaving permanent imprints on the ocean and atmosphere west of Hawaii.