Sensitivity of the Near-Shore Oceanic Circulation Off Central Chile to Coastal Wind Profiles Characteristics

Abstract

In Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS), the upwelling favorable wind speeds decrease toward the coast in the so-called wind drop-off coastal strip, which has been shown to be influential on the coastal upwelling dynamics, particularly in terms of the relative contributions of Ekman drift and Ekman suction to coastal upwelling. Currently, the wind drop-off length scale is not properly resolved by the atmospheric forcing of regional ocean models in EBUS, featuring a smoother cross-shore wind profile that results in stronger near-shore speeds that could partly explain the coastal cold bias often found in those model simulations. Here, as a case study for the upwelling system off Central Chile, the sensitivity of upwelling dynamics to the coastal wind reduction is investigated using a Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS). Coastal wind profiles at different resolutions are first generated using a regional atmospheric model, validated from altimeter data, and then used to correct the coarse atmospheric wind forcing used for sensitivity experiments with ROMS. It is shown that the wind drop-off correction induces a reduction in the oceanic coastal jet intensity, a stronger poleward undercurrent and a coherent offshore Ekman drift. It also yields a significant reduction of the cold bias along the coast compared to the simulation with “uncorrected” winds. Such reduction cannot be solely explained by the reduced Ekman transport only partially compensated by increase in Ekman suction. The analysis of the surface heat budget reveals in fact that an important contributor to the cooling reduction along the coast in the presence of coastal wind drop-off is the heat flux term mediated by the reduction in the mixed-layer depth. Overall, our results illustrate the nonlinear response of the upwelling dynamics to the coastal wind profiles in this region.