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Wind events in a subtropical coastal upwelling region as detected by admittance analysis

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A Correction to this article was published on 07 April 2021

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Abstract

Wind dominates the ocean surface circulation in the subtropical coastal upwelling regions. Although the wind events in these regions are mostly favorable for upwelling, other types of wind events are occasionally dominant. The typical patterns and statistics of wind events over the waters off northern Baja California are described. The identification of wind events was carried out using a systematic technique based on both the admittance magnitude and phase. This technique proved useful and has some of the crucial characteristics expected from a classification standpoint. This technique is applied to 29 years (1990–2018) of cross-calibrated multiplatform (CCMP) 10-m wind data. Equatorward along the coast (upwelling-favorable), offshore (Santa Ana), onshore, poleward along the coast (downwelling-favorable), and relaxation events are identified. The wind stress and wind stress curl mean fields and the statistics of occurrence are described on a year-to-year and month-to-month basis for each wind type. The upwelling-favorable and relaxation events are the most frequent and occur throughout the year; the typical duration is 4 and 1.5 days, respectively. The offshore (Santa Ana), onshore, and poleward wind events are sporadic and occur only during autumn-winter. The year-to-year variation of the frequency of occurrence of the equatorward wind events shows no trend during the study period.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Bruce D. Cornuelle for a fruitful discussion on the method. We thank the captain and crew of the R/V Francisco de Ulloa of CICESE for their help in the cruises.

Funding

This work has been partly supported by grant 257125 from the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACyT, Mexico) and CICESE. HJV had a fellowship from CONACyT and was also supported by ONR N00014-19-1-263.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Oceanografía Física, Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada (CICESE), Carretera Tijuana-Ensenada, No. 3918, Zona Playitas, CP 28860, Ensenada, Baja California, México

    Heriberto J. Vazquez & Jose Gomez-Valdes

  2. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CASPO, Nierenberg Hall, 92093-0230, La Jolla, San Diego, CA, USA

    Heriberto J. Vazquez

Authors
  1. Heriberto J. Vazquez
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  2. Jose Gomez-Valdes
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Contributions

Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Heriberto J. Vazquez performed method development, data collection, analysis, and writing of the manuscript’s first draft. Jose Gomez-Valdes commented on earlier versions of the document. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Heriberto J. Vazquez.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Tal Ezer

The original online version of this article was revised: The presentation of Table 1 was incorrect and Fewings (2016) should read Fewings (2017).

The CCMP data were retrieved from https://opendap.jpl.nasa.gov/opendap/OceanWinds/ccmp/L3.0/rss/v2.0/historical/contents.html

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Vazquez, H.J., Gomez-Valdes, J. Wind events in a subtropical coastal upwelling region as detected by admittance analysis. Ocean Dynamics 71, 493–507 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-021-01446-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-021-01446-z

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