Surface wind variability and its implications for the Yucatan basin‐Caribbean Sea dynamics Artículo académico uri icon

Abstracto

  • Sea surface wind data from the QuikSCAT satellite and two meteorological stations collected over 1 decade (1999–2008) were used to study the dominant time scales of the wind regime in the Yucatan basin. Wind data were used to quantify its implications on regional hydrodynamics by evaluating Ekman pumping and Ekman transport. The annual cycle of surface wind revealed different features than the Caribbean wind regime with a relative wind stress maximum observed in the Yucatan basin in June caused by the Caribbean low‐level jet. The strongest wind stress occurred during November presumably due to the collapse of the Atlantic warm pool. This feature provides new evidence of the importance of local atmosphere‐ocean coupling. Synoptic scale variability was detected during fall and winter, leaving spring and summer almost free from these activities. Empirical orthogonal functions revealed three dominant time scales of variability: an annual scale in mode 1 (46.3% of the total variance), a synoptic scale in mode 2 (27.7%), and a semiannual scale in mode 3 (6.4%). The third mode featured extreme pulses (six tropical storms and nine hurricanes). Ekman transport was found to contribute the most (93%) to total transport, whereas Ekman pumping contributed only 7%. However, upwelling induced by Ekman pumping persisted during some synoptic pulses, underscoring the importance of tropical storms and hurricanes. Offshore Ekman transport over the continental shelf north of the Yucatan Peninsula favored upwelling all year long. Onshore transport toward the coasts of southern Cuba and the eastern Yucatan Peninsula favored downwelling.

autores

  • Perez Santos, Ivan Ernesto
  • Schneider, Wolfgang
  • Sobarzo, Marcus
  • Montoya‐Sánchez, Raúl
  • Valle‐Levinson, Arnoldo
  • Garcés‐Vargas, José

fecha de publicación

  • 2010

Volumen

  • 115

Cuestión

  • C10