Interannual and Intra-Monthly Fluctuations of the Wind Field and Sea Surface Temperature in the West African Upwelling Region Based on Satellite Data

Abstract

The relative intensity of fluctuations of the sea surface temperature and wind field in the West African upwelling region within a month (intra-monthly) and from year to year were studied using highly resolved daily satellite data from the 1980s until 2015. It is shown that the interannual and intra-monthly variances are similar or the latter prevail throughout a year (for the wind field) and most of a year (for the sea surface temperature). This should be taken into account during the analysis of the upwelling characteristics (especially in the case of data with low spatio-temporal resolution) to prevent aliasing.