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Equatorial upwelling occurs due to the trade winds blowing towards the west in both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. However, the Ekman transport that is associated with these trade winds is directed 90° to the right of the winds in the Northern Hemisphere and 90° to the left of the winds in the Southern Hemisphere.
Ekman suction occurs both along coastlines and in the open ocean, but also occurs along the equator. Along the Pacific coastline of California, Central America, and Peru, as well as along the Atlantic coastline of Africa there are areas of upwelling due to Ekman suction, as the currents move equatorwards. [ 1 ]
Coastal upwelling is the best known type of upwelling, and the most closely related to human activities as it supports some of the most productive fisheries in the world. Coastal upwelling will occur if the wind direction is parallel to the coastline and generates wind-driven currents.
There is a band of siliceous ooze that is the result of enhanced equatorial upwelling in Pacific Ocean sediments below the North Equatorial Current. In the subpolar North Pacific, upwelling occurs along the eastern and western sides of the basin from the Alaska current and the Oyashio Current. Siliceous ooze is present along the seafloor in ...
The replacing upwelling water will be colder than the surrounding surface waters, again creating a strong vertical gradient in temperature that leads to the formation of a front. [2] As the location of the trade winds varies seasonally, the location of the equatorial upwelling front does so as well. [25]
Additionally, extensive upwelling of colder sub-surface waters occurs, caused by the prevailing northwesterly winds acting through the Ekman Effect. The winds drive surface water to the right of the wind flow, that is offshore, which draws water up from below to replace it. The upwelling further cools the already cool California Current.
To explain this simply, upwelling brings cold water to the surface, which will cool the above atmosphere and make it stable because of relative high air density due to low temperature. Thus, this area of the equator is different compared to the strong vertical convection and abundant precipitation of the ITCZ. As a result, the SST is ...
The Ekman spiral occurs as a consequence of the Coriolis effect. The Ekman spiral is an arrangement of ocean currents: the directions of horizontal current appear to twist as the depth changes. [1] The oceanic wind driven Ekman spiral is the result of a force balance created by a shear stress force, Coriolis force and the water drag. This force ...