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Coastal Upwelling Seasonality And Variability Of Temperature And Chlorophyll In A Small Coastal Embayment, Ryan K. Walter, Kevin Armenta, Brandon Shearer, Ian C. Robbins, John Steinbeck
Coastal Upwelling Seasonality And Variability Of Temperature And Chlorophyll In A Small Coastal Embayment, Ryan K. Walter, Kevin Armenta, Brandon Shearer, Ian C. Robbins, John Steinbeck
Physics
While the seasonality of wind-driven coastal upwelling in eastern boundary upwelling systems has long been established, many studies describe two distinct seasons (upwelling and non-upwelling), a generalized framework that does not capture details relevant to marine ecosystems. In this contribution, we present a more detailed description of the annual cycle and upwelling seasonality for an understudied location along the central California coast. Using both the mean monthly upwelling favorable wind stress and the monthly standard deviation, we define the following seasons (contiguous months) and a transitional period (non-contiguous months): “Winter Storms” season (Dec-Jan-Feb), “Upwelling Transition” period (Mar and Jun), …
Local Diurnal Wind‐Driven Variability And Upwelling In A Small Coastal Embayment, Ryan K. Walter, Emma C. Reid, Kristen A. Davis, Kevin Armenta, Kevin Merhoff, Nicholas J. Nidzieko
Local Diurnal Wind‐Driven Variability And Upwelling In A Small Coastal Embayment, Ryan K. Walter, Emma C. Reid, Kristen A. Davis, Kevin Armenta, Kevin Merhoff, Nicholas J. Nidzieko
Physics
The oceanic response to high‐frequency local diurnal wind forcing is examined in a small coastal embayment located along an understudied stretch of the central California coast. We show that local diurnal wind forcing is the dominant control on nearshore temperature variability and circulation patterns. A complex empirical orthogonal function (CEOF) analysis of velocities in San Luis Obispo Bay reveals that the first‐mode CEOF amplitude time series, which accounts for 47.9% of the variance, is significantly coherent with the local wind signal at the diurnal frequency and aligns with periods of weak and strong wind forcing. The diurnal evolution of the …