Wind‐driven meridional eddy heat flux in the Gulf of Guinea
Abstract
Seasonal Response of the Equatorial Atlantic/Programme Français Océan et Climat dans l'Atlantique Equatorial data for 1984 are analyzed to estimate heat fluxes in the interior of the Gulf of Guinea between 1°N and 4°N. In this region during May–July the mixed layer, roughly 35 m deep, cools uniformly by nearly 4°C in 3 months representing a mean rate of heat loss of approximately 70 W/m2. Climatic heat budget calculations by Hastenrath and Lamb (1978) show a surface flux heat loss of 30 W/m2 during this time. This suggests that although surface flux makes a significant contribution to the mixed layer cooling, additional divergent heat flux is required to balance the local heat budget. All advective and diffusive terms are estimated to be small except for the meridional eddy heat flux v′T′. The cospectrum of v and T has a peak near 15 days. At this frequency, v is coherent with the meridional wind. The thermocline displacements forced by this meridional wind are nearly antisymmetric about the equator. The frequency, meridional length scale, and asymmetry of these fluctuations suggest that a second baroclinic Rossby‐gravity wave is being locally forced. Thus in the interior of the Gulf of Guinea the eddy flux driven by the fortnightly wind fluctuations makes a significant contribution to the cooling of the mixed layer during the seasonal upwelling. This is in contrast to the central and western equatorial Atlantic Ocean, where a meridional heat flux is produced by 25 to 30 day…
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East of 10° E, the impacts of wind forced equatorial waves superimpose at different frequencies: Kelvin waves at periods between 25 and 40 days, mixed Rossby-gravity waves between 15 and 20 days, and inertia-gravity waves between 5 and 11 days.
“East of 10° E, the impacts of wind forced equatorial waves superimpose at different frequencies (Houghton and Colin, 1987;Athié et al., 2008;de Coëtlogon et al., 2010;Jouanno et al., 2013;Herbert and Bourlès, 2018): Kelvin waves at periods between 25 and 40 days, mixed Rossby-gravity waves between 15 and 20 days, and inertia-gravity waves between 5 and 11 days.”
From Physical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue (2020) · cites this paper as Houghton and Colin, 1987
Mixed Rossby-gravity waves, inertia-gravity waves, and Kelvin waves are believed to contribute to cooling the Atlantic cold tongue through both northward advection of cold tongue water and vertical mixing, although no calculations of the heat budget were done.
“Mixed Rossby-gravity waves, inertia-gravity waves, and Kelvin waves are believed to contribute to cooling the Atlantic cold tongue through both northward advection of cold tongue water and vertical mixing (Houghton and Colin, 1987;Marin et al., 2009;Jouanno et al., 2013), although no calculations of the heat budget were done.”
From Physical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue (2020) · cites this paper as Houghton and Colin, 1987
Cited by
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Athie, G., & Marin, F. (2008) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans · doi:10.1029/2007jc004332 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Physical drivers of the nitrate seasonal variability in the Atlantic cold tongue
Radenac, M.-H., Jouanno, J., Tchamabi, C. C., Awo, M., Bourlès, B., Arnault, S., & Aumont, O. (2020) · Biogeosciences · doi:10.5194/bg-17-529-2020 · Cited by 33 · see citing works
- Authors
- Houghton, R. W., & Colin, C.
- Venue
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 1987-09-15
- Volume
- 92
- Issue
- C10
- Pages
- 10777-10786
- ISSN
- 0148-0227 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2082355779
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2014: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.88
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
- Keywords
- Gulf of Guinea, mixed layer cooling, seasonal upwelling, wind-driven circulation, Rossby-gravity waves, baroclinic waves, thermocline displacement, equatorial Atlantic, heat balance, wind fluctuations, equatorial upwelling
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