Introduction Along coastlines, circulation is greatly influenced by coastal upwelling, a phenomenon representative three-dimensional geophysical flow as buoyancy, rotation, stratification and surface forcing are all significant. It occurs at the eastern boundaries of oceans due to surface forcing by winds. On the west coast of the North America, it occurs in spring and summer.
Winds blowing in a southern direction create a current.
The Earth's rotation draws this current away from the coastline. The offshore transport in the upper-layer is compensated for by deep water upwelling. 1 shows a schematic of a typical isopycnal in a laboratory simulation of this flow. The coastal upwelling front occurs between the cold, near-shore water and the warmer offshore water. This front undergoes instability then creates meanders.