The Effect of Coastal Upwelling on the Sea-Breeze Circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil: a Numerical Experiment S
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The effect of coastal upwelling on the sea-breeze circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil: a numerical experiment S. H. Franchito, V. B. Rao, J. L. Stech, J. A. Lorenzzetti To cite this version: S. H. Franchito, V. B. Rao, J. L. Stech, J. A. Lorenzzetti. The effect of coastal upwelling on the sea-breeze circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil: a numerical experiment. Annales Geophysicae, European Geosciences Union, 1998, 16 (7), pp.866-871. hal-00316417 HAL Id: hal-00316417 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00316417 Submitted on 1 Jan 1998 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Ann. Geophysicae 16, 866±881 (1998) Ó EGS ± Springer-Verlag 1998 The eect of coastal upwelling on the sea-breeze circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil: a numerical experiment S. H. Franchito, V. B. Rao, J. L. Stech, J. A. Lorenzzetti Instituto National de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE, CP 515, 12201-970, SaÄ o Jose dos Campos, SP, Brazil Received: 20 June 1997 / Revised: 21 January 1998 / Accepted: 12 February 1998 Abstract. The eect of coastal upwelling on sea-breeze circulation in Cabo Frio (Brazil) and the feedback of sea-breeze on the upwelling signal in this region are 1 Introduction investigated. In order to study the eect of coastal upwelling on sea-breeze a non-linear, three-dimensional, The best known regions of coastal upwelling are located primitive equation atmospheric model is employed. The in the eastern margins of the world oceans, e.g. in Peru, model considers only dry air and employs boundary Ecuador, California and Oregon on the Paci®c Ocean layer formulation. The surface temperature is deter- coast, and northwest Africa and southern Benguela mined by a forcing function applied to the Earth's current on the Atlantic Ocean coast. This oceanographic surface. In order to investigate the seasonal variations of phenomenon is of fundamental importance for the the circulation, numerical experiments considering maintenance of the high biological productivity of these three-month means are conducted: January-February- regions. Although less intense, coastal upwelling is also March (JFM), April-May-June (AMJ), July-August- present at some coastal regions located at the western September (JAS) and October-November-December margins of the oceans. For example, during the summer (OND). The model results show that the sea-breeze is period a coastal upwelling is observed at Cape Canav- most intense near the coast at all the seasons. The sea- eral in the southeastern continental shelf of the United breeze is stronger in OND and JFM, when the upwelling States (Lorenzzetti et al., 1987). occurs, and weaker in AMJ and JAS, when there is no Along part of the Brazilian southeast continental upwelling. Numerical simulations also show that when shelf, and particularly near Cabo Frio (22 59 S, the upwelling occurs the sea-breeze develops and attains 0 42020W) (Fig. 1), a seasonal upwelling is present during maximum intensity earlier than when it does not occur. the spring and summer months. During the fall and Observations show a similar behavior. In order to verify winter seasons, there is a relaxation of the upwelling the eect of the sea-breeze surface wind on the upwel- (Stech et al., 1995). The upwelling at Cabo Frio is ling, a two-layer ®nite element ocean model is also another example of this phenomenon occurring on the implemented. The results of simulations using this west coast of oceans. Considering that the surface layers model, forced by the wind generated in the sea-breeze of this region are dominated by warm waters of tropical model, show that the sea-breeze eectively enhances the origin, with low levels of productivity, the observed upwelling signal. coastal upwelling is of great importance for the biolog- ical enrichment of the water and sustaining of the ®shery activities of this region. Studies using ship, coastal Key words. Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics stations data and infrared satellite images have shown (mesoscale meteorology; ocean-atmosphere that strong negative sea surface temperature (SST) interactions) á Oceanography (numerical modeling) anomalies are present during most of the year in this region (Lorenzzetti et al., 1988; Valentin, 1984; Miran- da, 1982). In particular, the infrared images from the NOAA satellites have shown that coastal upwelling occurs from the coast of Espirito Santo state, north of Cabo Frio, to the region near Guanabara Bay, with the largest negative SST anomalies occurring along the coast near the Capes of SaÄ o Tome ,Bu zios and Frio Correspondence to: S. H. Franchito (Humi and Lorenzzetti, 1991). Figure 2 shows a NOAA- S. H. Franchito et al.: The eect of coastal upwelling on the sea-breeze circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil 867 Fig. 1. Region of Cabo Frio. The coastline considered in the model is indicated by a thick line. The smaller rectangle rep- resents the model domain. The dashed lines represent the iso- baths in m. The line AB indi- cates grid-points along a parallel line 10 km northward from the EW coast; the line CD corresponds to grid-points along a parallel line 10 km westward from the NS coast; the point E represents a grid- point situated 10 km inland from both the EW and NS coastlines; F indicates the inter- ception of the EW and NS coastlines. These lines and points are useful for analyzing the model results 12 AVHRR satellite image that illustrates the presence Central Water (SACW) at the continental slope. Recent of negative SST anomalies in this region. studies have shown that the SACW is the source of the It has been speculated that the seasonality of the cold waters that crop up near the coast in this region Cabo Frio upwelling is associated with the onshore/ (Gaeta et al., 1994; Valentin, 1984). Sometimes when oshore seasonal migration of the South Atlantic strong NE winds persist for several days, strong Fig. 2. Sea surface temperature satellite image showing the coastal upwelling in the Cabo Frio region. The yellow square repre- sents the model domain 868 S. H. Franchito et al.: The eect of coastal upwelling on the sea-breeze circulation at Cabo Frio, Brazil upwelling can develop with surface temperatures drop- mainly in austral summer and it is practically absent in ping to 13±14C near the coast, close to Cabo Frio. winter. Numerical experiments using the atmospheric These temperatures are about 10C cooler than the mid- model will be carried out separately for three-month and outer shelf waters. On the synoptic time scale of 6± mean conditions: January-February-March (JFM), 11 days, as cold fronts pass over the region, the surface April-May-June (AMJ), July-August-September (JAS) winds rotate counterclockwise and blow for a few days and October-November-December (OND), in order to from the southern quadrant, inhibiting the upwelling. study the seasonal variations in the sea-breeze circula- The large-scale atmospheric high pressure center tion of this region. The in¯uence of the breeze on the located over the South Atlantic ocean makes the upwelling is investigated using a numerical ocean model. prevailing surface wind blow from the northeast along These two models are described in Sect. 2; the model the Brazilian coast near Cabo Frio (Stech and Loren- results and comparisons with observations are discussed zzetti, 1992). The southwest-northeast and east-west in Sect. 3; and the summary and conclusions are orientation of the coastline in this region (Fig. 1), favors presented in Sect. 4. the development of a strong alongshore wind stress component, which is the main forcing of this upwelling. Most of the Brazilian coastal regions are in¯uenced 2 The numerical models by the sea-breeze circulation which occurs due to the horizontal temperature dierence between the land and 2.1 The sea-breeze model the ocean. Since the land is warmer than the ocean during the day, the local surface wind blows from sea to The atmospheric model developed for this study is a land (sea-breeze); at higher altitude, there is a weaker three-dimensional, non-linear, primitive equation model return ¯ow, which blows from land to sea. The for dry air. This model is a three-dimensional version of circulation is opposite during the night because the land the two-dimensional model developed by Franchito and is colder than the ocean (land breeze). These local winds Kousky (1982). may have an important role in determining the climate The hydrodynamical equations, the structure of the in coastal regions because they in¯uence the character- horizontal and vertical grids and the temporal integra- istic air ¯ow, the precipitation and the humidity and tion scheme are based on the mesoscale model devel- pollutant transports (Lu and Turco, 1994; Kousky, oped by Anthes and Warner (1978). However, 1980; Anthes, 1978; Ramos, 1975). simpli®cations are made in the parametrizations of the The sea-breeze circulation may be stronger when surface diurnal heating and the planetary boundary coastal upwelling is present because the negative SST layer. Since the model of Franchito and Kousky (1982) anomalies increase the horizontal temperature dierence was published in a journal of limited circulation, a between the ocean and land. The sea-breeze circulation detailed description is given below. in turn modulates the coastal ocean circulation.