Upwelling Proxy Improvement and Validation Using Satellite Remote Sensing along Southwest of the East Sea: Case Study in 2019

Abstract

Coastal upwelling is a significantly imperative process for understanding the interactions between physical and ecological processes and has been investigated incessantly. In this study, we explored the upwelling index, specifically upwelling age (UA). UA enabled us to observe the initiating, sustaining, and decaying upwelling processes. Although the sensitivity of many other geophysical parameters to estimate UA has been investigated, the wind direction has not been evaluated. Thus, we assessed the appropriate wind direction for the UA and obtained efficient upwelling signals from the four coastal stations. Furthermore, we applied the UA and compared it with the satellite sea level anomaly, sea surface temperature, and chlorophyll-a changes to validate how UA depicts their spatial extents. Thus, UA can predict the timing of coastal upwelling events using predicted geophysical parameters.