No abstract

Sea-surface temperature images of the coastal upwelling regions off Northwest Africa show that the core of upwelling is sometimes located far from the coast. This has been documented in three regions that share a common feature, namely a wide and shallow continental shelf. This upwelling feature plays a key role in the ecology of the Canary Current System. It creates an innerfront which provides retention for biological material, e.g. fish eggs and larvae, in the highly productive nearshore environment. An analytical model has been developed based on a two dimensional extension of Ekman's solution. The linear and steady response of a homogeneous ocean forced by an upwelling-favorable wind provides a mechanism for the upwelling separation from the coast. The merging of the surface and bottom Ekman layers induces a very weak cross-shore circulation and a "kinematic barrier" for the Ekman transport divergence. In the case of an alongshore wind, the barrier is located near the isobath h ≈ 0.4D, where D is the thickness of Ekman layers. This yields an upwelling cell which is essentially concentrated in the region 0.5D < h < 1.25D, with upwelling occurring preferentially near the isobath h ≈ 0.6D. It turns out that the cross-shore width of upwelling scales with D/S, the ratio of Ekman depth to bottom topographic slope. The application of this solution to real bathymetric profiles rationalizes, not only the offshore upwelling observations in Northwest Africa, but also the influence of topography on the cross-shelf structure of a wind-driven coastal upwelling. The model also quantifies the effect of the cross-shore wind component showing how it drives the nearshore pressure gradient adjustment and how it affects the upwelling. A linear numerical experiment reproduces the theoretical steady solution, thereby allowing investigation of the transient regime. Relaxation of the hypothesis in the numerical model validates the linear assumption of the theory and then allows investigation of the sensitivity to friction parameterizations and the influence of stratification. The latter leads to an "oscillation" of the upwelling cell with seaward migration driven by outcropping and homogeneization of the water column, and, coastal incursion driven by a "boundary layers splitting" process caused by shoreward advection of the isopycnal dome and stratification of the inner shelf.

sources of mixing play a major role in the overall system dynamics through their impact upon the general shelf thermohaline structure, in particular in the vicinity of the upwelling zone. Systematic alongshore variability in thermohaline properties highlight important limitations of the 2D idealization framework that is frequently used in coastal upwelling studies.

The southern end of the Canary current system comprises of an original upwelling center that has so far received little attention, the Southern Senegal-Gambia Upwelling Center (SSUC). We investigate its dynamical functioning by taking advantage of favorable conditions in terms of limited cloud coverage. Analyses and careful examinations of over 1500 satellite images of sea surface temperature scenes contextualized with respect to wind conditions confirm the regularity and stability of the SSUC dynamical functioning (as manifested by the recurrence and persistence of particular SST patterns). The analyses also reveal subtle aspects of its upwelling structure: shelf break cooling of surface waters consistent with internal tide breaking/mixing; complex interplay between local upwelling and the Mauritanian current off the Cape Verde headland; complexity of the inner-shelf/mid shelf frontal transition. The amplitude of the diurnal cycle suggests that large uncertainties exist in the SSUC heat budget. The studies limitations underscore the need for continuous in situ measurement in the SSUC, particularly of winds.

[1] Temperature data collected in the shallow, tidally isolated reef flat/lagoon of Lady Elliot Island off Queensland, Australia, show marked variability under solar and tidal forcing. Sea level drops below the height of the protective lagoon rim for a few hours during low tide, effectively isolating the remaining water. Because the lagoon is shallow, its temperature change (from diurnal solar forcing and cooling) is amplified. We develop a simple analytical model to predict the time evolution of mean lagoon temperature, beginning with a well-mixed control volume. This approach highlights the asymmetric flood/ebb physics of tidally isolated lagoons. After discussing the response of this model, we compare it with results from two idealized numerical simulations that illustrate differing aspects of lagoon temperature variability under "potential flow" and "prevailing current" situations. The conceptual model captures the essence of lagoon temperature variability and underscores the importance of solar-lunar phasing. However, because of the well-mixed assumption, it cannot reproduce sudden temperature transitions associated with new incoming water masses. Observations show that a slowly progressing thermal wave inundates the lagoon on rising tides. This wave is similar to our "potential flow" simulation in that it is approximately radially symmetric. On the other hand, it appears to advectively replace resident lagoon water, similar to our "prevailing current" simulations. We attempt to account for this behavior with a simple "frontal" modification to our conceptual model. Results show that this frontal model is able to capture the sudden temperature transitions present in the data and offers improved predictive capabilities over the well-mixed model.