GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 27, NO.

23, PAGES 3905-3908, DECEMBER 1, 2000

On the inuence of topography in the induction
of coastal upwelling along the Chilean coast
Dante Figueroa
Departamento de Fsica de la Atmosfera y el Oceano, Facultad de Ciencias Fsicas y Matematicas,
Universidad de Concepcion, Chile
Carlos Moat
Departamento de Oceanografa, Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanogracas, Universidad de
Concepcion, Chile
Abstract. The contribution of the winds and the to-
pography in the induction of upwelling along the Chilean
coastal zone is calculated. The topographic-induced up-
welling is estimated taking into account the eect of the
meridional changes of the coastline orientation. The wind-
induced upwelling was calculated for the austral summer
using NSCAT scatterometer data, resulting a total amount
of 2.1x10
6
m
3
s
1
of water transported oshore for the whole
Chilean upwelling zone. It is shown that the topographic ef-
fect dominates the wind-induced upwelling in several parts
of the Chilean coast, particularly at 23
o
S (Antofagasta),
25.5
o
S, 30
o
S (Coquimbo), 33
o
S (Valparaso) and 37
o
S (Con-
cepcion). Antofagasta, Coquimbo, Valparaso and Con-
cepcion are well known zones of intense upwelling. The
results show that the topography plays a key role in the
upwelling of the Chilean coast, specially in its northern part.
Introduction
Local topography can severely inuence the strength of
the coastal upwelling [Arthur, 1965; Johnson et al., 1980],
modifying the usual approach of just wind-induced upwelled
water. In the Chilean upwelling system (ca. 20
o
S-40
o
S), al-
though part of one of the major eastern boundary current
systems of the world [Strub et al., 1998], with remarkable
high biological productivity [Ryther, 1969], few attempts
have been made for quantifying the contributions of wind
and local bathymetry to the total upwelling [Fonseca, 1985;
Johnson et al., 1980].
Four regions of strong upwelling have been recognized
in the Chilean coast: Antofagasta (23
o
S)[Rodrguez et al.,
1991], Coquimbo (30
o
S)[Strub et al., 1998], Valparaso (33
o
S)
[Johnson et al., 1980] and Concepci on (37
o
S)[Arcos and
Salamanca, 1984]. The fact that they are also the most
prominent coastline features in the region of Chile that can
have equatorward, upwelling-favorable winds, suggests that
the topography should play a dominant role as forcing for
the upwelling, at least in these locations.
The aim of this study is to quantify the proportion in
which the winds and the bathymetry participate in the for-
mation of upwelling along the Chilean coast. In order to do
that, the wind-induced upwelling is calculated for the whole
Chilean coast and compared with the upwelling induced by
topography.
Copyright 2000 by the American Geophysical Union.
Paper number 1999GL011302.
0094-8276/00/1999GL011302$05.00
Relation between the topographic and
wind contributions to upwelling
Besides the coastal upwelling ws = /(fL) caused by
the land barrier, where , , f and L are the meridional
wind stress, water density, Coriolis parameter, and shelf
width, the coast can produce water upwelling by vorticity
induction. Johnson et al. [1980] used a simple model of up-
welling, consisting in a wind-driven upper layer of depth h
over an inviscid layer of depth h

. Combining the velocity

and the continuity equations of both layers, they show that
for horizontal scales larger than a couple of kilometers, the
water vertical velocity can be calculated as:
w
h
=
H
2f

+ v

+
h
2f

y
h

(1)
where H = h + h

is the total depth of the base of the two

layers involved in upwelling, is the vertical component of
the relative vorticity, and is the latitudinal rate of change
of the Coriolis parameter.
The expression (1) shows three additional contributions
to the upwelling, that is, local topography, vertical mo-
tions due to conservation of absolute vorticity (which in the
present case results to be negligible compared to the other
h
V
S

Figure 1. Geometry used for the calculation of the volume
conservation. represents the meridional rate of change of the
coastline orientation.
3905
3906 FIGUEROA MOFFAT: TOPOGRAPHIC AND WIND UPWELLING OFF CHILE
74 72 70
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
Longitude (W)
L
a
t
i
t
u
d
e

(
S
)
(a)
0 0.05 0.1

y
[Nm
2
]
(b)
2 0 2

y
/x [10
7
Nm
3
]
(c)
Figure 2. (a) Chilean coastline of the upwelling zone. (b) Meridional surface wind-stress along the Chilean coast (solid line) and
along 0.5 (dashed line) and 1.0 (dotted line) degrees of longitude oshore. (c) Zonal gradient of the meridional surface wind stress
along the coast.
two contributions) and nally, the upwelling production due
to induction of a wind curl.
In (1) can be assumed that the convective derivative
of the vertical relative vorticity can be simplied to just
v/y, as the currents near the Chilean coast are mainly
meridional. On the other hand, one could assume that in
the last term of (1) neither the density nor the depth of
the upper layer depend sensibly on the cross-shore distance.
That means that the wind curl contribution to the upwelling
can be calculated just as wc = 1/(2f)
y
/x.
In order to quantify /y, we use the simple geometry
shown in Figure 1. An equatorward current of width S and
depth h ows into a zone of changing width and depth. The
latitudinal rates of change of S is characterized by the an-
gle . As the velocity must remain small near the coast,
changes of the coastline orientation aect mainly the o-
shore velocity, inducing in this way a change of the relative
vorticity. A linear increase of the velocity and simple volume
conservation leads to /y = (2v tan )/S
2
, where actually
S is the width of the alongshore current that is signicantly
inuenced by the coast.
The variation of the meridional rate of change of the ver-
tical relative vorticity becomes

y
=
2v
L
2
tan (2)
and the whole contribution of the topography to the water
vertical velocity becomes
wt =
Hv
2
fS
2
tan (3)
Application for the Chilean upwelling
zone
In order to evaluate the dierent contributions to the
upwelling along the Chilean coast, the meridional depen-
dence of the topographical () and dynamical (H, , v, L,
S,
y
/x) variables have to be known. The variation of
was numerically evaluated from a digitized bathymetry,
using a resolution of 0.1 degrees both in latitude and lon-
gitude. For H, , v, L and S the constant values 200 m,
1025 kgm
3
, 0.1 ms
1
, 15 km and 25 km were respectively
selected. The zonal gradient of the meridional wind stress
(
y
/x) o Chile was calculated using NSCAT scatterom-
eter data.
The Figure 2a shows the Chilean coast corresponding to
the upwelling region. In the Figure 2b the solid, dashed
and dotted lines show respectively the meridional surface
wind stress along the Chilean coast and along 0.5 and 1.0
degrees of longitude oshore, respectively, for the region be-
tween 20
o
S and 40
o
S, for austral summer. Using the wind
stress measured along the coast, a total wind-induced o-
shore transport of 2.1x10
6
m
3
s
1
was found for the Chilean
coast during summer. The Figure 2c shows the zonal gra-
dient of the meridional wind stress along the Chilean coast.
Both
y
as
y
/x induce upwelling along the Chilean coast
in summer, between 22
o
S and around 38-40
o
S.
Figure 3 shows the wind curl (3b) and the topographic
(solid line) and wind stress (dashed line) contributions to
the upwelling along the coast of Chile in summer (3c). The
wind curl -induced upwelling has a rather smooth varia-
FIGUEROA MOFFAT: TOPOGRAPHIC AND WIND UPWELLING OFF CHILE 3907
74 72 70
40
38
36
34
32
30
28
26
24
22
20
Longitude (W)
L
a
t
i
t
u
d
e

(
S
)
(a)
1 0 1 2
w
c
[10
6
ms
1
]
(b)
0 1 2 3
w
s
, w
t
[10
5
ms
1
]
(c)
Figure 3. (a) Chilean coastline of the upwelling zone. (b) Wind curl induced vertical velocity. (c) Wind stress (dashed line) and
topographic (solid line) induced vertical velocity.
tion from ca. 21
o
S to near 38
o
S, with a relative minimum
around 25
o
S. The wind stress contribution has maximum
values around 36
o
S, and decreases smoothly to the north.
The topographic contribution is rather irregular, depend-
ing of the variations of the coastline. A general observation
it is that the topographic eect is of the same order than
the wind-induced upwelling in the southern part of the up-
welling region, but largely exceeds it in the northern coast
of Chile. The ratio between the topographic- and wind-
induced upwelling can be sensibly larger than one in several
parts of the Chilean coast, particularly at 23
o
S (Antofa-
gasta), 25.5
o
S, and 30
o
S (Coquimbo). They are compara-
ble in 33
o
S (Valparaso), but the topographic eect domi-
nates again in 37
o
S (Concepci on). Antofagasta, Coquimbo,
Valparaso and Concepci on are well-known zones of intense
upwelling. The region around 25.5
o
S, however, is not recog-
nized as an important upwelling center.
Discussion
The inuence of the bathymetry on the coastal up-
welling has been reported indirectly in some Chilean stud-
ies. All the coastal eddies observed from SST imaginery
by C aceres [1992], for example, were anticyclonic south of
Punta Lavapie, the main upwelling focus near Concepci on,
and cyclonic north of this point. The change of anticyclonic
to cyclonic rotation around Punta Lavapie is certainly pro-
duced by the change of the orientation of the coastline, con-
rming the results presented in this study.
Even though qualitatively the relevance of the topogra-
phy as an upwelling-inducting factor is clear, the numerical
results obtained here have however to be carefully analyzed.
A factor around ten between the topographic and the wind-
induced upwelling, as is the case at 23
o
S, for example, seems
rather too large, due to several reasons. First, it must be
remembered that in this study the winds are averaged over a
whole season (summer), whereas a single upwelling event in-
volves a scale of just few days, with much higher wind stress
and zonal wind stress gradient. Secondly, the meridional wa-
ter velocity along the Chilean coast was assumed as constant
in this study (0.1 ms
1
) . As the topographic induction of
upwelling depends on the square of the velocity (equation
3) dierent meridional velocities in dierent points along
the coast can signicantly aect the comparison between
the upwelling in this places. Finally, some caution should
be used concerning the cross-shore prole of the meridional
velocity. The results shown here were obtained with the as-
sumption of a linear increase of the velocity from nil at the
coast up to a maximum value, and that the position of the
maximum velocity remains constant, independently of the
coastline orientation. Both assumptions, even if plausible,
should be tested with real data.
The resolution used here for the wind (0.5
o
) does not
allow to have the best representation of the wind stress
near the coastline, and tends to smooth it. One can ex-
pect that the wind stress has a larger small-scale variability
[Atkinson et al., 1986], especially near coastline sectors with
abrupt terrain topography, as is the case, for example, in
Concepci on and Antofagasta. This small-scale variability
3908 FIGUEROA MOFFAT: TOPOGRAPHIC AND WIND UPWELLING OFF CHILE
should be included in the evaluation of the wind stress and
the zonal wind stress gradient, as it was included the small-
scale meridional changes of the coastline orientation.
Acknowledgments. This study was supported by the
Chilean National Fund for Advanced Studies in Priority Ar-
eas (FONDAP-Humboldt Program) of CONICYT, Chile. The
NSCAT data was obtained from the NASA Physical Oceanog-
raphy Distributed Active Archive Center at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. We thank Freddy
Echeverra for data digitizing.
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D. Figueroa, Departamento de Fsica de la Atmosfera y el
Oceano, Universidad de Concepcion, Casilla 160-C, Concepcion,
Chile (e-mail: dguero@udec.cl)
C. Moat, Departamento de Oceanografa, Universidad
de Concepcion, Casilla 160-C, Concepcion, Chile (e-mail:
cmoat@udec.cl)
(Received December 1, 1999; accepted August 22, 2000.)