Influence of ENSO on the coastal upwelling along Northwest Africa#
Team “Fukuivenator Rhumba”
Sthitapragya Ray, Elizaveta Baranova-Parfenova, Andrea A. Cabrera, Diana Marcela Guzmán Lugo, Daria Proklova
Mentor: Emma Daniels
The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is known to influence global atmospheric and oceanic conditions through teleconnection effects. In this analysis, we have analysed the teleconnection between ENSO and the North West African (NWA) coastal upwelling system. Coastal upwelling systems, characterised by the upward flow of cool nutrient-rich waters from the deeper ocean to its surface, are hotspots of biological activity and crucial for ocean productivity. Our analysis relied on a method called the complex rotated maximum covariance analysis which identifies covariation between two spatio-temporal fields. We have identified a linked mode of sea surface temperature (SST) variability which plays a crucial role in determining the nature of El Niño event. The corresponding Atlantic SSTs illustrate strong coastal variations along a portion of the coastline of NWA. Thus our analysis identifies the sensitivity of this coastal upwelling system to the diversity of El Niño, and effectively solates the mode of linked variability.
The full micropublication will be shared here at the end of March 2024.