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Interdecadal changes in SST variability drivers in the Senegalese-upwelling: the impact of ENSO

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Abstract

Sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the North Eastern Tropical Atlantic has its center of action in the Senegalese–Mauritanian upwelling system, where its drivers are wind-induced ocean dynamics and air–sea thermodynamic processes. Thus, a better understanding of the local wind variations, together with their predictability, contributes to a more comprehensive assessment of the SST variability in that region. In this study, we use monthly data from two ocean reanalyses, SODA and ORAS-5, and a regional forced-ocean simulation to characterize the interannual SST variability off the Senegalese Coast in the common period 1960–2008. Local indices of the mixed layer heat budget during the major upwelling season (February–March–April) exhibit pronounced interannual to decadal variability. We demonstrate that the local interannual SST variability undergoes inter-decadal fluctuation and concomitant changes in its local and remote drivers. Off-Senegal SST variability was largely controlled by wind-induced Ekman transport during the 1960s–1970s, acting under favorable thermocline and mixed layer conditions. However, from 1980s onwards, the drastically reduced Ekman impact observed on local SSTs is associated with a deeper thermocline. This shift in the effectiveness of the dynamic mechanisms coincides with a more active ENSO teleconnection with upwelling before the 1980s. An extended SODA record reveals that the multidecadal modulator of the ENSO impact on the North-eastern Tropical Atlantic resembles the negative phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability. Our results bring to light the fundamental role played by the global decadal background state in the activation of the drivers and air-sea mechanisms responsible for generating the interannual off-Senegal SST variability.

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Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the CSIC ICOOP projects: ICOOPB20204, ICOOPB20358 (the UCM Cooperation Project from XIV and XVII calls); the Spanish Project CGL2017- 86415-R; the EU/FP7 PREFACE (Grant Agreement 603521). The authors would like to thank Jean-Marc Molines for his invaluable assistance in conducting the simulations with the ATLTROP025 model. MMR received funding from the MSCA-IF-EF-ST FESTIVAL (H2020-EU project 797236) and from a Juan de la Cierva Incorporation (IJC2019-041150-I) research contract of MICINN (Spain). This work was also supported by the TRIATLAS project, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant agreement No 817578."

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Physique de l’Atmosphere et de lOcean SF (LPAOSF), University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal

    Malick Wade & Amadou Thierno Gaye

  2. Instituto de Geociencias IGEO UCM-CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Belén Rodríguez-Fonseca & Marta Martín-Rey

  3. University Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Belén Rodríguez-Fonseca & Marta Martín-Rey

  4. LOCEAN Laboratory, Sorbonne University, UPMC, 4 place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France

    Alban Lazar

  5. CERFACS, Modelling and Global Change Team, Toulouse, France

    Jorge López-Parages

  6. Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, ICM, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain

    Marta Martín-Rey

  7. Laboratory of Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean Simeon Fongang (LPAO-SF), Dakar, Senegal

    Amadou Thierno Gaye

  8. Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Atmosphère et de l’Océan, Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis, Route Gallèle, Saint-Louis, Senegal

    Malick Wade

  9. Physical Oceanography Group, University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    Jorge López-Parages

  10. Instituto Universitario de Biotecnologı́a y Desarrollo Azul (IBYDA), University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain

    Jorge López-Parages

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  1. Malick Wade
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Wade, M., Rodríguez-Fonseca, B., Martín-Rey, M. et al. Interdecadal changes in SST variability drivers in the Senegalese-upwelling: the impact of ENSO. Clim Dyn 60, 667–685 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-022-06311-3

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