Coastal upwelling in the modern ocean

Abstract

Abstract During the past decade several major physical oceanographical experiments were performed over the continental margins along the ocean’s eastern boundaries. The studies extended farther seaward than the continental shelf and extended over the seasons. As a result, our understanding of the processes and phenomena associated with coastal upwelling and affecting the ocean farther seaward has increased. The Coastal Ocean Dynamics Experiment investigated the dynamics controlling the currents over a continental shelf exposed to strong upwelling favourable winds; the experiment was more intensive and completely instrumented than any previous shelf experiment. The Coastal Transition Zone experiment investigated the cool ‘filaments’ conspicuous in satellite images of SST off northern California during the coastal upwelling seasons. Associated with the cool filaments are jets along the boundary between the cooler recently upwelled water and the warmer adjacent ocean water; as the jets meander equatorward and offshore (several hundred km), the upwelled water extends over greater distances offshore than previously thought likely. One experiment (SuperCODE) looked at the large alongshore scale, from 35°N to 50°N off the west coast of north America, defined the seasonal cycle, and found that the tendency for subsurface poleward flow over the continental shelf and slope increased at lower latitudes in spite of the increased equatorward mean wind. The ubiquitous poleward currents, usually subsurface over the inner slope and outer shelf, have been observed in all the experiments off the west coasts of the Americas, in spite of equatorward winds. Unlike the jets of the coastal transition zone, the poleward undercurrents are trapped to the continental slope and shelf. The Leeuwin Current Interdisciplinary Experiment took place off Western Australia, the only major eastern boundary without coastal upwelling in spite of strong equatorward winds. The alongshore pressure gradient along the west coast of Australia is large, perhaps because of the free connection to the western Pacific, and dominates the opposing equatorward wind stress, suppressing upwelling and causing poleward flow (the Leeuwin Current) at the surface over the slope and outer shelf.