A new paper , led by Julius Busecke and Dhruv Balwada, highlights how small-scale air-sea interactions, often unresolved in climate models, can significantly influence large-scale heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere. Using high-resolution coupled simulations, researchers found that this small-scale variability leads to a systematic global ocean cooling of about 4 W/m², with regional effects up to 100 W/m². These findings underscore the critical role of atmospheric wind and ocean temperature heterogeneity, offering new insights for improving climate model accuracy.