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Cited by 46Climate variability and modelsOceanographic and Atmospheric ProcessesMarine and coastal ecosystems

The effect of Congo River freshwater discharge on Eastern Equatorial Atlantic climate variability

Materia, Stefano, Gualdi, Silvio, Navarra, Antonio, Terray, Laurent·2012·Climate Dynamics
DOI 10.1007/s00382-012-1514-x
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Abstract

The surface ocean explains a considerable part of the inter-annual Tropical Atlantic variability. The present work makes use of observational datasets to investigate the effect of freshwater flow on sea surface salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST) in the Gulf of Guinea. In particular, the Congo River discharges a huge amount of freshwater into the ocean, affecting SSS in the Eastern Equatorial Atlantic (EEA) and stratifying the surface layers. The hypothesis is that an excess of river runoff emphasize stratification, influencing the ocean temperature. In fact, our findings show that SSTs in the Gulf of Guinea are warmer in summers following an anomalously high Congo spring discharge. Vice versa, when the river discharges low freshwater, a cold anomaly appears in the Gulf. The response of SST is not linear: temperature anomalies are considerable and long-lasting in the event of large freshwater flow, while in dry years they are less remarkable, although still significant. An excess of freshwater seems able to form a barrier layer, which inhibits vertical mixing and the entrainment of the cold thermocline water into the surface. Other processes may contribute to SST variability, among which the net input of atmospheric freshwater falling over EEA. Likewise the case of continental runoff from Congo River, warm anomalies occur after anomalously rainy seasons and low temperatures follow dry seasons, confirming the effect of freshwater on SST. However, the two sources of freshwater anomaly are not in phase, so that it is possible to split between atypical SST following continental freshwater anomalies and rainfall anomalies. Also, variations in air-sea fluxes can produce heating and cooling of the Gulf of Guinea. Nevertheless, atypical SSTs cannot be ascribed to fluxes, since the temperature variation induced by them is not sufficient to explain the SST anomalies appearing in the Gulf after anomalous peak discharges. The interaction processes between river runoff, sea surface salinity and temperature play an effective role in the interannual variability in the EEA region. Our results add a new source of variability in the area, which was often neglected by previous studies. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s00382-012-1514-x

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  1. Uppala SM, Kallebrg PW, Simmons AJ, Andrae U, da ERA-40 reanalysis Berchtold V da Costa, Fiorino M, Gibson, JK, Haseler J, Hernandez A, Kelly GA, Li X, Saarinen S, Sokka N, Allan RP, Andersson E, Arpe K, Balmaseda MA, Beljaars ACM, Bidlot J, Van de Berg L, Bormann J, Caires S, Chevalier F, Dethof A, Dragosavac M, Fischer M, Fuentes M, Hagemann S, Holm E, Hosking BJ, Isaksen L, Janssen PA, Jenne R, McNally PA, Mahfouf JF, Morcrette JJ, Rayner NA, Saunders RW, Simon P, Sterl A, Trenberth KE, Untch A, Vasilijevic D, Viterbo P, Woolen J (2007) The ERA-40 reanalysis. Q J R Met Soc 131(612):2961–3012

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Authors
Materia, S., Gualdi, S., Navarra, A., & Terray, L.
Affiliations
  • CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (IT)
  • Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
Corresponding author
Materia, Stefano
Venue
Climate Dynamics
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2012-09-18
Volume
39
Issue
9-10
Pages
2109-2125
ISSN
  • 0930-7575 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-0894
DOI
10.1007/s00382-012-1514-x
OpenAlex
W2079557165
Cited by
46
References
54
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 2
FWCI
2.08
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Climate Dynamics (publishedVersion)
  • Archivio istituzionale della ricerca (Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine and coastal ecosystems
Keywords
river discharge, sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, Gulf of Guinea, eastern equatorial Atlantic, interannual climate variability, ocean stratification, vertical mixing, rainfall anomalies, air-sea fluxes, freshwater anomalies

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