The Influence of Stratification on Wind-Driven Coastal Upwelling and Downwelling

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

The structure of the cross-shelf flow has been of interest to coastal oceanographers for decades because it determines the depth at which upwelled water originates. This project will test a new idea that differences in stratification determine whether the upwelled water comes from bottom boundary layers (under weak stratification) or from interior depths (under strong stratification). Analysis of existing datasets and numerical models will be used to test and further develop this idea. This project has important implications to other coastal oceanographers interested in the transport of nutrients, larvae or geochemical materials.