1. A novel approach to quantify metrics of upwelling intensity, frequency, and duration
- Author
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Amieroh Abrahams, Albertus J. Smit, and Robert W. Schlegel
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Topography ,Atmospheric Science ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Marine and Aquatic Sciences ,Wind ,Oceanography ,Geographical Regions ,01 natural sciences ,Duration (project management) ,Coastal Regions ,Climatology ,Multidisciplinary ,Geography ,Temperature ,Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted ,Surface Temperature ,Signal Filtering ,Current (stream) ,Physical Sciences ,Medicine ,Engineering and Technology ,Research Article ,Data products ,Surface Properties ,Science ,Climate Change ,Oceans and Seas ,Materials Science ,Material Properties ,Climate change ,Africa, Southern ,Meteorology ,Sea Water ,Time series ,Ocean Temperature ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,Landforms ,Chi-Square Distribution ,010604 marine biology & hydrobiology ,Ecology and Environmental Sciences ,Global warming ,Shores ,Aquatic Environments ,Geomorphology ,Marine Environments ,Regional Geography ,Signal Processing ,Earth Sciences ,Upwelling ,Environmental science ,Intensity (heat transfer) - Abstract
The importance of coastal upwelling systems is widely recognized. However, several aspects of the current and future behaviors of these systems remain uncertain. Fluctuations in temperature because of anthropogenic climate change are hypothesized to affect upwelling-favorable winds and coastal upwelling is expected to intensify across all Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems. To better understand how upwelling may change in the future, it is necessary to develop a more rigorous method of quantifying this phenomenon. In this paper, we use SST data and wind data in a novel method of detecting upwelling signals and quantifying metrics of upwelling intensity, duration, and frequency at four sites within the Benguela Upwelling System. We found that indicators of upwelling are uniformly detected across five SST products for each of the four sites and that the duration of those signals is longer in SST products with higher spatial resolutions. Moreover, the high-resolution SST products are significantly more likely to display upwelling signals at 25 km away from the coast when signals were also detected at the coast. Our findings promote the viability of using SST and wind time series data to detect upwelling signals within coastal upwelling systems. We highlight the importance of high-resolution data products to improve the reliability of such estimates. This study represents an important step towards the development of an objective method for describing the behavior of coastal upwelling systems.
- Published
- 2021