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Satellite Observations of Oceanic Eddies Around Africa

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Remote Sensing of the African Seas

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Abstract

Oceanic eddies having scales from several hundred meters to several hundred kilometers are ubiquitous phenomena in the World’s ocean. This became evident only after they could be observed from satellites and space shuttles. Here we present several images taken in different spectral bands which show signatures of eddies of different spatial scales in sea areas around Africa. In particular, we present a series of satellite images showing the propagation of a small-scale cyclonic (cold) eddy generated at Cap-Vert at the coast of Senegal into the open ocean. We show that this small-scale eddy transported nutrients from the Senegal upwelling region westward into the oligotrophic North Atlantic thus giving rise to enhanced chlorophyll-a concentration there. Since eddies are also areas of high fish population, knowledge of their position and properties is of great importance for fishery.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See also http://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/

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Acknowledgements

We thank NASA and ESA for providing the data and Sergey Stanichny for calling our attention to the NASA source of the MODIS reflectance map at 555 nm shown in Fig. 11.6. This study was supported by BMBF-Ib and AIRD grants obtained to build the Trilateral German–French–African Environmental research initiatives in Sub-Sahara Africa entitled AWA “Ecosystem Approach to the management of fisheries and the marine environment in West African waters”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Meereskunde, Universität of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Werner Alpers

  2. US Imago, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, Plouzané, France

    Dominique Dagorne

  3. GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Peter Brandt

Authors
  1. Werner Alpers
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  2. Dominique Dagorne
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  3. Peter Brandt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Werner Alpers .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. TP272, Joint Research Centre European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Vittorio Barale

  2. Institut für Meereskunde, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Gade

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Alpers, W., Dagorne, D., Brandt, P. (2014). Satellite Observations of Oceanic Eddies Around Africa. In: Barale, V., Gade, M. (eds) Remote Sensing of the African Seas. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8008-7_11

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