UPWELLING FILAMENTS AND THEIR ROLE IN CROSSFRONTAL WATER EXCHANGE

Satellite data (thermal and color imagery) show that offshore flowing filaments off the west coasts of North America, North and South Africa can influence significantly the cross-frontal mixing in the coastal upwelling zones. To evaluate this role, we investigated structure, dynamics and behavior of surface filaments in the Canary and Benguela upwelling regions on the base of daily satellite IR and VIS imagery (AVHRR NOAA, MODIS-Aqua). It was found that seasonal variability of the filaments location depends on intra-annual shift of general upwelling intensity along the coast. The main statistical characteristics of filaments - length, width, temperature anomaly and estimates of velocity were obtained. Estimates of cross-frontal water exchange due to filamentation based on the statistical data show that these coherent structures play a major role in the water and particle exchange between coastal zone and the open ocean in both upwelling regions.