Sensitivity of Eastern boundary solutions to the nearshore wind structure

Jeroen Molemaker, UCLA
Francois Colas, UCLA
Xavier Capet, LPO

It is well known that in upwelling regions, the structure of the very nearshore wind profile has a strong influence on the amplitude and shape of the upwelling cell, associated currents, and sea surface temperature. When forcing regional models, we often rely on satellite data, such as QuikSCAT, or larger scale atmospheric models. In both cases, wind changes within the nearest few tens of kilometers are unresolved. This may to lead to a cold SST bias. Recently, it has been suggested that the coupling between surface wind stress and SST gradient, as suggested by Chelton, can be used to recover some of these inshore wind gradients. We present a method to recover the inshore structure of the surface wind forcing and discuss the sensitivity of ROMS solutions to this nearshore wind structure.