RT book part
T1 The Upwelling of the Colombian Caribbean Coasts: Remote Sensing, Morphology, and Influence on the Lake Maracaibo
A1 Blázquez Gómez, Elizabeth
A1 Alonso del Rosario, José Juan
A1 Vidal Pérez, Juan Manuel
A2 Ciencias de la Tierra
A2 Ciencias y Técnicas de la Navegación y Construcciones Navales
A2 Física Aplicada
K1 Upwelling
K1 Trade winds
K1 Remote sensing
AB The dynamic of the Southern Caribbean Sea is highly influenced by theoccurrence of strong and persistent westward trade winds. These are driven by thelocation in the latitude of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) inducing theCaribbean Low Level Jet (CLLJ). There are two upwelling episodes in the Peninsulade la Guajira (Colombian Caribbean). One of them is very strong and extends fromOctober–November to March–April. When the ITCZ travels northward and holds astationary latitude, the other event is much weaker and shorter, from May to July.The upwelling events can be easily monitored by Sea Surface Temperature (SST)imagery. We briefly resume some studies on the upwelling events in the Peninsulade la Guajira by relating the area of colder waters computed from MODIS–SST imagery, wind records extracted from QuickSCAT imagery products, and theSouthern Oscillation Index (SOI). The results of the analysis are translated into theconditions for the outflow of Lake Maracaibo, which is a very large quasi-closedwater body with serious problems of pollution because it does not interchangeenough water with the Gulf of Venezuela to keep good environmental quality. Aconceptual model and a diagnosis numerical finite element model are presented toexplain why Lake Maracaibo flushes only once a year for 2 months and how theupwelling of La Guajira determines when it happens.
PB Springer Science and Business Media
SN 978-3-030-61874-2
SN 2199-3041
YR 2021
FD 2021
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/38822
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/38822
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 07-nov-2026