The Upwelling of the Colombian Caribbean Coasts: Remote Sensing, Morphology, and Influence on the Lake Maracaibo

Abstract

The dynamic of the Southern Caribbean Sea is highly influenced by the occurrence of strong and persistent westward trade winds. These are driven by the location in the latitude of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) inducing the Caribbean Low Level Jet (CLLJ). There are two upwelling episodes in the Peninsula de la Guajira (Colombian Caribbean). One of them is very strong and extends from October–November to March–April. When the ITCZ travels northward and holds a stationary latitude, the other event is much weaker and shorter, from May to July. The upwelling events can be easily monitored by Sea Surface Temperature (SST) imagery. We briefly resume some studies on the upwelling events in the Peninsula de la Guajira by relating the area of colder waters computed from MODIS–SST imagery, wind records extracted from QuickSCAT imagery products, and the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI). The results of the analysis are translated into the conditions for the outflow of Lake Maracaibo, which is a very large quasi-closed water body with serious problems of pollution because it does not interchange enough water with the Gulf of Venezuela to keep good environmental quality. A conceptual model and a diagnosis numerical finite element model are presented to explain why Lake Maracaibo flushes only once a year for 2 months and how the upwelling of La Guajira determines when it happens.