A model perspective on the dynamics of the shadow zone of the eastern tropical North Atlantic – Part 1: the poleward slope currents along West Africa

Kounta, Lala; Capet, Xavier; Jouanno, Julien; Kolodziejczyk, Nicolas; Sow, Bamol; Gaye, Amadou Thierno

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-971-2018

Articles | Volume 14, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-971-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-971-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 5

Research article

|

10 Sep 2018

Research article |

| 10 Sep 2018

A model perspective on the dynamics of the shadow zone of the eastern tropical North Atlantic – Part 1: the poleward slope currents along West Africa

Lala Kounta, Xavier Capet, Julien Jouanno, Nicolas Kolodziejczyk, Bamol Sow, and Amadou Thierno Gaye

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Final revised paper (published on 10 Sep 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 19 Mar 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Apr 2018
- AC1: 'response to reviewer 1', Xavier Capet, 12 Jul 2018
RC2: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 May 2018
- AC2: 'response to reviewer 2', Xavier Capet, 12 Jul 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Anna Mirena Feist-Polner on behalf of the Authors (17 Jul 2018) Author's response

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (23 Jul 2018) by John M. Huthnance

Dear Authors
Thank-you for your revised version in response to the referees' comments. I am now asking you to consider "Technical Corrections" as below; then it should go direct to the Copernicus editorial system for publication in Ocean Science. There will be copy editing and you should check that your intended meaning survives. Thank-you for submitting to Ocean Science.

Page 1
Line 4. Omit “a suite of”
Line 6. “outmost” -> “southernmost”

Page 2 Line 5. “Morocco” -> “north-west Africa”?

Page 10 Lines 21, 22 (and elsewhere?). “alongshore” -> “along-slope”?

Page 11 Footnote 1, line 2. “disaggregate” (spelling).

Page 13 line 24. “shall” -> “should”.

Page 14 Footnote 3 line 1. “. . slower than . .”

Page 15 line 28. “extension” –> “extent”?

Page 16.
Line 7. “reminded” -> “recalled”.
Line 9. “writes” -> “is”.
Line 12. “. . mode: . .”. “pulsation” -> “frequency”

Page 17
Line 17. Omit “As for” and “it” (it introduces ambiguity about whether you are referring to mode 1).
Line 27. Better “as latitude increases and the corresponding typical horizontal scale associated with that mode Rn decreases. . .”

Page 19
Line 10. “impeding” -> “inhibiting”?
Line 15. “isopycn” -> “isopycnal”

Page 21 line 9. Omit “recent” (now 10 years ago and you state the year).

Page 22 line 11. “. . and L. K. . .”

Page 29, figure 2 caption. “shall” -> “should”.

Page 30. Figure 3 caption and labels in figure disagree about which panels are model and which observation.

Page 32.
Figure 5 caption “. . (bottom; c-d) . .”
Figure 6 caption line 1. “shall” -> “should”.

Page 34. Figures have month names in French. In legend, meaning of “hlb” is not clear to me.

Page 36 Figure 10 caption. “two thin black lines” -> “two dashed grey lines”?

Page 37 Figure 11 caption line 2. “averaged” -> “integrated” (I assume since units are Sv).

Page 41 Figure 16 caption should identify which mode is which (by colour).

Page 44 Table 2. At 14°N, should n=1 and n=2 speeds cϕ be the same (likewise cg)?

Page 45 Table 3. Need to state units (Sv).

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Short summary

The currents along the West African seaboard are poorly known. Based on a carefully evaluated numerical simulation the present study describes these currents in the sector 8–20°N and the physical processes that drive them. Prevailing northward flow with two intensification periods per year is identified. Both local and distant coastal winds (blowing as far as thousands of kilometers away in the Gulf of Guinea) contribute to the circulation in this sector.