2002: Mesoscale patterns in the Cape SaoVicente (Iberian Peninsula) upwelling region

[1] The coastal upwelling region near Cape São Vicente, the southwestern tip of the Iberian Peninsula where the southern zonal coast meets the meridional western coast, was studied using over 1200 advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) satellite images of sea surface temperature and time series of sea level height, wind velocities, and nearshore sea surface temperature recorded at coastal sites within 200 km of the cape. Summer upwelling is more intense and persistent off the western coast than off the southern coast, where a recurrent warm coastal countercurrent flows westward, and at times turns northward along the western coast after reaching the cape. In this region the equatorward current jet of cold water upwelled off the western coast is no longer bounded by a coast. Three preferred directions for the spreading of this water are identified. The most persistent is eastward along the southern shelf break and slope, possibly merging with waters previously upwelled locally, which becomes separated from shore by the coastal progression of the warmer counterflow. The second preferred direction results in the southward development of a cold filament feature fed by cold waters upwelled farther north and represents the southernmost extent of the intense coastal upwelling jet, whic