Improving wind-based upwelling estimates off the west coasts of North and South America

Weekly upwelling was estimated at 25 sites off the North and South American west coasts from August 1999 to December 2001 using geostrophically derived winds, model-derived winds from the U.S. Navy's global atmospheric (NOGAPS) model, and QuikSCAT satellite-measured winds. Satellite-measured winds, verified with 15 U.S. west coast buoys, were within 1.3 m s-1 and 26ﾰ RMS. Upwelling estimates derived from geostrophic winds using the Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory (PFEL) technique were compared to those derived from both satellite-measured winds and modelderived winds. Upwelling estimates from model-derived winds agreed with satellite-based estimates at all 14 North American sites and 9 of 11 South American sites. Estimates from geostrophic winds agreed with satellite-based estimates at 12 of 14 North American sites and 7 of 11 South American sites. These comparisons showed that upwelling estimates based on the Navy's global model winds were accurate in more regions than those based on geostrophic winds. A fine-scale upwelling investigation using the Navy's high-resolution atmospheric model (COAMPS) revealed narrow near-shore bands of strong wind-stress and wind-stress-curl missed in the above upwelling estimates. Improvements in the depiction of coastal upwelling will require wind data and upwelling estimates with at least a 10 km resolution.

Department dc:contributor.department

Oceanography

Grantor dc:publisher

Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Pickett, Mark H.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Schwing, Franklin B.

Statement dc:rights

• This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10945/9830

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:calhoun.nps.edu:10945/9830