Abstract
A climatology of wind sea and swell waves along the Canary eastern boundary current area, from west Iberia to Mauritania, is presented. The study is based on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis ERA-Interim. The wind regime along the Canary Current, along west Iberia and north-west Africa, varies significantly from winter to summer. High summer wind speeds generate high wind sea waves, particularly along the coasts of Morocco and Western Sahara. Lower winter wind speeds, along with stronger extratropical storms crossing the North Atlantic sub-basin up north lead to a predominance of swell waves in the area during from December to February. In summer, the coast parallel wind interacts with the coastal headlands, increasing the wind speed and the locally generated waves. The spatial patterns of the wind sea or swell regional wave fields are shown to be different from the open ocean, due to coastal geometry, fetch dimensions, and island sheltering.
Highlights
Two types of wind-generated gravity waves coexist at the ocean surface: wind sea and swell
In most areas of the world’s oceans, more than 75% of the time, the wave field is dominated by swell, with the exception of the intense wind speed belts in the mid to high latitudes
Integrated in global [39,40], and regional studies [53,54], looked at western Iberia and north-west Africa wind field characteristics, with a particular focus on coastal jets. They have concluded that the marine winds field along the Canary eastern boundary currents (EBC) system can be seen as unique, in the sense that the Canary current is disrupted by the influx of Mediterranean water, into the North Atlantic basin, and by the Azores current closer to the surface
Summary
Two types of wind-generated gravity waves ( called “waves”) coexist at the ocean surface: wind sea and swell. Integrated in global [39,40], and regional studies [53,54], looked at western Iberia and north-west Africa wind field characteristics, with a particular focus on coastal jets. They have concluded that the marine winds field along the Canary EBC system can be seen as unique, in the sense that the Canary current is disrupted by the influx of Mediterranean (denser) water, into the North Atlantic basin, and by the Azores current closer to the surface.
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