ROLE OF MERIDIONAL COMPONENT OF WIND AT UPWELLING ALONG THE COAST OF BRAZIL

Author: Aguirre, E.

Affiliation: INPE/CPTEC/DMD

ABSTRACT

One of the ocean responses to the wind shear in coastal regions is Ekman pumping, which consists of vertical movements of water in the Ekman layer. These vertical movements are manifested in the form of upwelling or downwelling. The study area is the tropical Atlantic between 20°N and 40ºS and 20ºE and 60ºW. It is a numerical investigation of responses to the variability of the ocean winds along the Brazilian coast. We present the results of using the analysis of observational scatterometer data of wind shear stresses from ERS-1 and ERS-2 over the period 1991-2000 to force the numerical simulations. We also investigate the variation in the depth of the thermocline as a consequence of the anomalous weaker winds and decreased coastal upwelling.