Site23: Antares-Ubatuba

Coast of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo

Site 23 in Google Earth

Download the sample products:   L1P (383MB) L2R (484MB) L2W (767MB)

subset: L1P (106MB) L2R (110MB) L2W (177MB)

Coastal areas of Southeast Brazil present a wealth of natural resources and are rich with diverse species, habitat types, and nutrients. They also sustain a diversity of economic activities being subject to increasing pressures such as urban development, industrial expansion, exploitation of natural resources, and tourism. With the aim of understanding and addressing the consequences of natural and anthropic forces in coastal waters of the South Brazil Bight, time-series of remote sensing and in-situ environmental observations are being developed to account for the interconnectivity of processes within the system. In this context, remote sensing and in situ data are routinely acquired at the ANTARES-Ubatuba time-series station (23º44'S, 45º00'W) to study the bio-optical long-term variability of this coastal ecosystem.
Ubatuba inner shelf is influenced by mesoscale cyclonic meandering of the Brazil Current (BC) system at a region with a crosscurrent transfer of slope waters into the shelf. This ecosystem is strongly influenced by the South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) upwelled locally or remotely forced from northeastern upwelling cores mainly during austral summer. In the winter, colder, less saline and relatively richer waters advects northwards along the shelf, from southern latitudes. The horizontal spreading and mixing of this water with the Brazilian Current (BC), is another mechanism determining mesoscale patchness of phytoplanton biomass and primary production.