Global InformationPapagayo Jet information
The Papagayo jet, also referred to as the Papagayo Wind or the Papagayo Wind Jet, are strong intermittent winds that blow approximately 70 km north of the Gulf of Papagayo, after which they are named.[2] The jet winds travel southwest from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean through a pass in the Cordillera mountains at Lake Nicaragua.[3] The jet follows the same path as the northeast trade winds in this region; however, due to a unique combination of synoptic scale meteorology and orographic phenomena, the jet winds can reach much greater speeds than their trade wind counterparts. That is to say, the winds occur when cold high-pressure systems from the North American continent meet warm moist air over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, generating winds that are then funneled through a mountain pass in the Cordillera.[4] The Papagayo jet is also not unique to this region. There are two other breaks in the Cordillera where this same phenomenon occurs, one at the Chivela Pass in México and another at the Panama Canal, producing the Tehuano (Tehuantepecer) and the Panama jets respectively.[5]
The Papagayo jet also induces mesoscale meteorology phenomena that influence the pacific waters hundreds of kilometers off the Nicaraguan and Costa Rican shores.[2] When the jet wind surges, it creates cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, Ekman transport, and upwelling that contribute to the creation of the Costa Rica Dome off the western coast of Central America in the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool (WHWP).[6] The relatively cold, nutrient-rich waters of the dome, in comparison to the surrounding WHWP, create an ideal habitat for a number of species making the Papagayo Wind Jet important for biodiversity in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.[2]
- ^ "Papagayo Winds Blow Nicaraguan Dust Over the Pacific", NASA Earth Observatory, 19 March 2004.
- ^ a b c Fiedler, Paul C. (2002). "The annual cycle and biological effects of the Costa Rica Dome". Deep-Sea Research Part I. 49 (2002): 321–338. Bibcode:2002DSRI...49..321F. doi:10.1016/S0967-0637(01)00057-7.
- ^ Xie, Shang-Ping; Xu, Haiming; Kessler, William S.; Nonaka, Masami (2005). "Air–Sea Interaction over the Eastern Pacific Warm Pool: Gap Winds, Thermocline Dome, and Atmospheric Convection". Journal of Climate. 18 (1): 5–20. Bibcode:2005JCli...18....5X. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.63.776. doi:10.1175/jcli-3249.1.
- ^ Chelton, Dudley B.; Freilich, Michael H.; Esbensen, Steven K. (2000). "Satellite Observations of the Wind Jets off the Pacific Coast of Central America. Part II: Regional Relationships and Dynamical Considerations". Monthly Weather Review. 128 (7): 2019–2043. Bibcode:2000MWRv..128.2019C. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(2000)128<2019:sootwj>2.0.co;2.
- ^ Steenburgh, James; Schultz, David M.; Colle, Brian A. (1998). "The Structure and Evolution of Gap Outflow over the Gulf of Tehuantepec, Mexico". Monthly Weather Review. 126 (10): 2673–2691. Bibcode:1998MWRv..126.2673S. doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1998)126<2673:tsaeog>2.0.co;2.
- ^ Willett, Cynthia S.; Leben, Robert R.; Lavin, Miguel F. (2006). "Eddies and Tropical Instability Waves in the eastern tropical Pacific: A review". Progress in Oceanography. 69 (2–4): 218–238. Bibcode:2006PrOce..69..218W. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2006.03.010.