Éditeur(s) : Gauthier-Villars
Résumé : The wind, temperature and current data collected during the joined French-USA FOCAL/SEQUAL programme carried in the equatorial Atlantic band in 1983 and 1984, allowed for the first time a simultaneous study of both the equatorial and coastal (5-degrees-N) upwellings along 4-degrees-W. At the equator, the decreases of both the surface temperature and the depth of the thermocline in boreal summer are correlated with the zonal component of the local windstress in the period band 1-2 months. This corresponds to the time required by the thermocline to lift up at 0-4-degrees-W in the presence of an easterly wind. The local wind cannot however explain the entire vertical variability of the thermal structure at 0-4-degrees-W. The correlation function shows in addition that the temperature there is highly correlated to the wind recorded at St Peter and St Paul Rocks (SPP) in the period band 0-2 months. This time scale is the one required by the Kelvin and Rossby waves to propagate along the equator through equatorial wave guide dynamics. The influence of these waves seems particularly important when considering the upward displacements of the thermocline both in February-March when the winds abruptly relax and in November-December when the wind at 0-4-degrees-W is southwesterly with no secondary negative maximum in the wind record at 1-degrees-N-29-degrees-W (SPP), contrary to the climatological wind field. The computation of the different terms of the heat equation applied to an homogeneous surface layer shows that the cooling is entirely due to vertical advection and eddy diffusion. The cooling would be more effective without the atmospheric heat flux and the horizontal advection of heat transported both by the South Equatorial Current at the surface and the southward current at the bottom of the mixed layer. At the coast, the amplitude and duration of the upwellings are not constant all along the coast: in boreal summer, they are maximum east of the two capes (Palmas and Three Pointes) while in winter the strength of the cooling is maximum in the east of Cape Palmas and then decreases eastward. The meridional slope of the thermocline off the coast concerns a distance which is much larger than the internal Rossby radius of deformation and is coherent with the latitudinal extension and intensity of the Guinea current both in summer and winter. In addition to this geostrophic adjustment, the upward tilt of the thermocline in summer is enhanced by the intensification of the component of the wind parallel to the coast. The application of a simple linear model forced with an eastward wind at that time explains the surface maximum cooling at the coast and the current distribution in both vertical and meridional directions. The two maxima of the zonal component of the Guinea current, in summer (main one) and in winter are in phase with the intensity of the vertical component of the windcurl. The application of the Sverdrup equations shows that the current speeds computed, for both seasons, are of the same order of magnitude as the speeds observed.
Oceanologica Acta (0399-1784) (Gauthier-Villars), 1991 , Vol. 14 , N. 3 , P. 223-240

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http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00101/21252/18865.pdf
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00101/21252/