Wind Generation of the Costa Rica Dome

Abstract

Upwelling in the Costa Rica Dome is seasonal and the result of the localized cyclonic wind stress curl. Fluctuations in the wind stress curl in the fall release the upwelled region as a Rossby wave. Similar low-latitude domes are hypothesized to be ubiquitous to those oceans where a localized cyclonic wind stress curl is associated with an Intertropical Convergence Zone.