Emergence of cyclonic structures due to the interaction between near‐inertial oscillations and mesoscale eddies

We show that mesoscale eddies, through their effects on near‐inertial oscillations, can induce a spatially heterogeneous diffusion that depends on the vorticity sign. In turn, this heterogeneous diffusion breaks the cyclone–anticyclone symmetry on small time‐scales (compared to the diffusive time‐scale) and favours the emergence of cyclonic structures.