Robust Detection of the North-West African Upwelling From SST Images

Analysis and study of coastal upwelling using sea surface temperature (SST) satellite images is a common procedure because of its coast effectiveness (economic, time, frequency, and manpower). Developing on the Ekman theory, we propose a robust method to identify the upwelling regions along the north-west African margin. The proposed method comes to overcome the issues encountered in a recent method devoted for the same purpose and for the same upwelling system. Afterward, we show how our method can serve as a framework to study and monitor the spatio-temporal variability of the upwelling phenomenon in the studied region.

Automated summary

Analyzing and studying coastal upwelling using sea surface temperature (SST) satellite images is a common and cost-effective procedure. A robust method based on the Ekman theory is proposed to identify upwelling regions along the north-west African margin, overcoming issues encountered in previous methods. This method can serve as a framework to study and monitor the spatio-temporal variability of upwelling phenomenon in the region.