Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Description And Mechanisms Of The Mid-Year Upwelling In The Southern Caribbean Sea From Remote Sensing And Local Data, Digna T. Rueda-Roa, Tal Ezer, Frank E. Muller-Karger

CCPO Publications

The southern Caribbean Sea experiences strong coastal upwelling between December and April due to the seasonal strengthening of the trade winds. A second upwelling was recently detected in the southeastern Caribbean during June-August, when local coastal wind intensities weaken. Using synoptic satellite measurements and in situ data, this mid-year upwelling was characterized in terms of surface and subsurface temperature structures, and its mechanisms were explored. The mid-year upwelling lasts 6-9 weeks with satellite sea surface temperature (SST) ~1-2°C warmer than the primary upwelling. Three possible upwelling mechanisms were analyzed: cross-shore Ekman transport (csET) due to alongshore winds, wind curl (Ekman …