Wind driven upwelling along the African coast of the Strait of Gibraltar

Abstract

Regular remote sensing data from various sensors are used here for the study of the wind driven upwelling phenomenon along the African coast of the Strait of Gibraltar. It is shown for an extended summer period (May 15 till September 15, 2003) that sea surface temperature (SST) data in the strait are correlated with NCEP winds, each westward wind increase being followed by a clear surface temperature decrease. Local surface temperature of about 22°C at that time drops down to 15°C, value corresponding to the 80–120 m depth conditions. The analysis of subsequent images indicates that the cold upwelling plume typically moves first to the Atlantic during wind forcing, and then to the Mediterranean after the wind event. The presence of the northern coast of the strait is taken as responsible for a rise of a cross‐strait sea level gradient and the enhancement of the associated westward geostrophic current that explains the first stage of the plume deployment. Sea level difference measured between Tarifa (European coast) and Ceuta (African coast), well described by a linear equation in term of the westward wind component, supports this idea as well as the subsequent remotely sensed SST distributions.