Title :
Effects of climate change over the NW African Coast
Author :
Marcello, Javier ; Hernández-Guerra, Alonso ; Eugenio, Francisco
Author_Institution :
Signals & Commun. Dept., Univ. of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain
Abstract :
Changes in the coastal upwelling ecosystems need to be accounted for as these structures are responsible for an important percentage of the global fish catch, for the primary and secondary productivity and for the atmosphere-ocean exchange. In this sense, our work aims to assess its impact in the coastal upwelling regions located in the northwest African coast (latitudes 5° to 36°N and longitudes 5° to 30°W). This area is one of the major upwelling regions in the world, so, it is important its study to predict the variability that measured parameters may have in the future. Upwelling Index obtained from Sea Surface Temperature images for the period 1987-2006 and remote sensing wind stress have been used to analyze the coastal upwelling region off Northwest Africa. Upwelling Index shows an intensification of the upwelling during the 20 years period.
Keywords :
atmospheric boundary layer; atmospheric temperature; climatology; ocean temperature; remote sensing; wind; AD 1987 to 2006; atmosphere-ocean exchange; climate change effects; coastal upwelling ecosystems; global fish catch; northwestern African coast; primary productivity; sea surface temperature; secondary productivity; upwelling index; wind stress remote sensing data; Area measurement; Ecosystems; Marine animals; Ocean temperature; Productivity; Remote sensing; Sea measurements; Sea surface; Stress; Temperature sensors; climate change; feature extraction; sea surface temperature; upwelling index; wind stress;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium,2009 IEEE International,IGARSS 2009
Conference_Location :
Cape Town
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3394-0
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-3395-7
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2009.5417873
