Inventor:

Alexander V. Soloviev

1733 Royal Palm Way, Hollywood, FL 33020, USA

FIELD OF DISCLOSURE

[0001] The disclosure relates to a system and method for controlling regional and local ocean climates.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0002] Wind blowing over any large water body on the rotating planet Earth can push surface water away from the coast by the process known as the Ekman transport. The Ekman transport can occur in the ocean, seas, lakes, or other large bodies of water. The Ekman transport is at right angles to the wind direction, to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

[0003] In the Northern Hemisphere along a coastline, oriented North-South, like much of the west California coast of the U.S., winds that blow from the north tend to drive ocean surface currents to the right of the wind direction, thus pushing the surface water offshore. Deep, cold water then rises to replace the surface water that was pushed away by the Ekman transport. This process, known as the coastal upwelling, is schematically shown in FIG. 1 and in more detail in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. The coastal upwelling typically occurs if the wind is parallel to the coastline (FIG. la, FIG. 2a) while the coast is on the left side in the Northern Hemisphere or on the right side in the Southern Hemisphere relative to the wind direction. This is a common knowledge, (see, e.g., Wikipedia.)

[0004] The offshore movement of surface water by the Ekman transport (FIG. lb, FIG. 2a, c) leads to a lowering of sea-level towards the coast (FIG. 2b, d). This results in a landward horizontal pressure gradient, which in turn generates a geostrophic flow towards the Equator (FIG. 2c). This geostrophic flow is known as the upwelling jet. The upwelling j et, combined with the offshore wind-driven current, results in a surface current directed offshore and towards the Equator (FIG. 2c). There are also upward-sloping isobars and northerly flow below the layer of zero current (FIG. 2d, FIG. 3). (After Collins 2001.)

[0005] Though the upwelling is typically most prominent in the ocean and seas, this disclosure is also applicable to other large bodies of water on the planet Earth.

[0006] FIG. 3 schematically shows the typical vertical structure of a coastal ocean upwelling; a pycnocline separates the warmer near-surface water from the colder upwelling water. A surface feature of the pycnocline is the upwelling font on the sea surface, which can be either relatively narrow or several tens of kilometers wide.

[0007] Note that the warmer surface water and the colder deep water in the undercurrent jet are moving at different speeds and directions, which results in a current velocity shear across the pycnocline and the layer of zero current (FIG. 2d, FIG. 3). Strong density stratification in the pycnocline suppresses turbulent mixing across the pycnocline, which permits upwelling water to propagate towards the coastline with relatively low friction on the upper boundary of the upwelling water. The upwelling pycnocline, however, is only marginally stable and periodically, on time scales of days to weeks, becomes unstable (Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

[0008] “Depending on the strength of the upwelling event, the wind stress causes the density interface (pycnocline) to rise toward the coast. The pycnocline however may or may not eventually reach the sea surface, resulting in either partial upwelling or full upwelling (Csanady 1977). Partial upwelling results in a sloping density interface which does not reach the surface. Full upwelling, on the other hand, results in the formation of a surface density front, which is a relatively narrow frontal zone across which seawater density changes rapidly, also referred to as the upwelling front .” (Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

[0009] The coastal upwelling dynamics can be grouped into different regimes (FIG. 4). Oceanic influences (e.g, . the upward tilt of the large nutri cline on the eastern side of subtropical gyres, or localized onshore flows in submarine shelf-break canyons) are preconditions for coastal upwelling as they import nutrient-rich waters onto the shelf The actual wind-driven coastal upwelling process takes place on the central parts of the continental shelf and follows from upwelling-favorable (/.< ., coast-parallel) wind stresses. This upwelling excludes near-shore regions of the shelf in which the water is too shallow (depth <50 m) for the development of spatially separated surface and bottom Ekman layers. Here, the Ekman layers overlap and create water movements that are more aligned with the wind direction. Turbulence mixes waters from the main upwelling zone into nearshore waters. (Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

[0010] The abrupt change in coastline orientation at Pt. Conception creates a sharp transition between upwelling regions to the north of the Point and warmer waters of the Santa Barbara Channel (FIG. 5).

[0011] Note that the coastal upwelling schematics in FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG. 3 are an idealized representation of a steady-state situation, assuming a fully developed Ekman transport at right angles to the wind. The coastal upwelling occurs in response to wind events. Thus, the actual pattern of isopycnals and along-shore current flow varies from time to time, depending on the direction and strength of the wind, and is also affected by local factors like the topography of the seabed and the shape of the coastline. As a result, upwelling fronts tend to develop wave-like instabilities, eddies, and filaments. The California upwelling is an example (FIG. 5).

[0012] Depending on typical wind conditions in a region, coastal upwelling can be either a quasipermanent feature in so-called major coastal upwelling systems or a seasonal feature in seasonal coastal upwelling systems. Coastlines and seafloors are frequently irregular, wind-driven coastal upwelling events are generally localized, and upwelling is not at all uniform. Consequently, upwelling is more pronounced in certain regions, called upwelling centres, than in others. Pt. Reyes is an example of the upwelling centre (FIG. 5). Upwelling centres are often associated with strong frontal flows related to the upwelling jet that breaks up into mesoscale, 10-20 km size in coastal waters, circular circulation patterns called eddies.

[0013] While most of the primary biological productivity takes place inside and a short distance downstream of coastal upwelling centres, more quiescent regions adjacent to upwelling centres, called upwelling shadows, are important as spawning and nursery grounds for pelagic fish.

(Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

[0014] Upwelling jets are not smooth (laminar) flows. The upwelling pycnocline is only marginally stable and upwelling jets quickly become hydrodynamically unstable on time scales of days to weeks and shed mesoscale eddies. This natural mechanism results in periodic local disruptions of the costal upwelling, which reduces and thus regulates its strength.

[0015] Worldwide (FIG. 6), there are major eastern boundary coastal upwelling systems off the coasts of Oregon and California (California Upwelling), Peru and Chile (Peruvian Upwelling), Southwest Africa (Benguela Upwelling), and Northwest Africa and Portugal (Northwest African and Portugal/NW Spain Upwelling). The respective upwelling jets are associated with the California Current, the Humboldt Current, the Benguela Current, and the Canary Current. These four eastern boundary currents comprise the most intense coastal upwelling zones in the oceans. (Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

[0016] There is also a strong seasonal upwelling system off Somalia and Oman, which is associated with the Somali Current. There is a seasonal upwelling system off Australia, associated with the West Australia Current. There are also wind-induced seasonal upwelling systems off the coasts off New Zealand, Sumatra, along the southwest coast of India, in the South China Sea, in the East China Sea, Arafura Sea, and in some other places. (FIG. 6.)

[0017] The Benguela Current is the eastern boundary of the South Atlantic subtropical gyre and can be divided into northern and southern subsystems with upwelling occurring in both areas. The subsystems are divided by an area of permanent upwelling off Luderitz, Namibia, which is the strongest upwelling zone in the world. The California Current System (CCS) is an eastern boundary current of the North Pacific that is also characterized by a north and south split. The split in this system occurs at Point Conception, California due to weak upwelling in the south and strong upwelling in the north. The Canary Current is an eastern boundary current of the North Atlantic Gyre and is also separated due to the presence of the Canary Islands. Finally, the Humboldt Current or the Peru Current flows west along the coast of South America from Peru to Chile and extends up to 1,000 kilometers offshore. [0018] The climatological importance of a coastal upwelling lies in the fact that it usually replenishes surface waters with deep cold water, reducing the sea surface temperature in the coastal areas influenced by upwelling. The reduced sea surface temperature in the areas influenced by upwelling suppresses evaporation and lowers the presence of moisture in the air. Dry air is less favorable for the formation of rain clouds and rains. Typically, associated with coastal ocean upwellings are arid and semi-arid climate zones (FIG. 7a).

[0019] The coastal arid and semi-arid regions that are associated with the coastal upwelling (FIG. 7a) are largely unpopulated due to desert type climate (Fig. 7b). These coastal areas typically have ample surface wave energy (FIG. 7c), which creates favorable conditions for the application of wave-inertial pumps.

[0020] Coastal upwellings bring cold water and produce dry surrounding air masses. Dry air is a cause of forest fires in the coastal areas affected by the coastal upwelling. An example is the California fires (FIG. 8). The abrupt change in coastline orientation at Pt. Conception creates a sharp transition between upwelling regions to the north of the Point and warmer waters of the Santa Barbara Channel (FIG. 5). Note corresponding reduction of forest fires in the coastal areas south of Pt. Conception (FIG. 8).

[0021] Harmful algal blooms and hypoxia (though are not limited to upwelling regions) do develop more frequently in the coastal upwelling areas due to high concentrations of nutrients in the upwelling water. Upwelling shadows, downstream of upwelling centres, can contain favorable conditions for the development of red tides and other harmful algae. (Kaempf and Chapman 2016.)

SUMMARY

[0022] This disclosure describes a method and means for mitigating adverse coastal ocean upwelling effects, comprising an artificial downwelling system injecting the surface water in the upwelling water to disrupt said upwelling, which will promote green infrastructure and agriculture, reduce incidences of forest fires in the related arid and semi-arid coastal regions, and mitigate the incidences of harmful algal blooms.

[0023] In another aspect, the artificial downwelling system can consist of a wave-inertia pump or a plurality (cluster) of wave-inertia pumps, each pipe extending downwards from the surface layer to the layer of the upwelling water.

[0024] In another aspect, the artificial downwelling system deployed on the warmer oceanic side of the upwelling front delivers warmer and therefore less dense surface water to colder and therefore denser upwelling waters below the sheard pycnocline to trigger convective-shear hydrodynamic instability, which disrupts the coastal upwelling.

[0025] In another aspect, the artificial downwelling system is geographically concentrated near upwelling centres.

[0026] In another embodiment, the artificial downwelling systems comprising a cluster of waveinertia pumps will be concentrated in the vicinity of upwelling centres, outside of upwelling filaments.

[0027] In another aspect, the wave-inertia pump has an additional one or more side outlets injecting the surface water in upwelling waters below the pycnocline and in the undercurrent j et below the layer of zero current (FIG. 3d).

[0028] In another aspect, productivity of the wave-inertia pump (downward waterflow and its distribution between outlets) is preset before the deployment at sea.

[0029] In another aspect, the productivity of the wave-inertia pump (downward waterflow speed) can be regulated by pressure reducing or pressure limiting valves controlled through remote telemetry, telecommand, or electromechanical tools powered by wave energy, wind energy, or solar panel energy backed by electrical batteries.

[0030] In another aspect, the productivity of the artificial downwelling system is controlled with telecommand tools based on oceanographic and atmospheric in-situ and remote sensing data in the coastal ocean upwelling area such as the upwelling index (Bakun 1973), the lowering of the coastal sea level induced by the offshore Ekman transport, satellite derived sea surface temperature, and Ocean Color satellite products.

[0031] In another aspect, to preserve fishery while mitigating arid and semi-arid climates in coastal areas, the artificial downwelling will reduce a full upwelling to the partial upwelling.

[0032] In yet another aspect, a machine learning model will optimize the control of the coastal ocean upwelling productivity based on in-situ and remote sensing techniques collecting the environmental data.

[0033] These and other aspects, features, and advantages from the present disclosure will become more readily apparent from the attached drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

BRIEF DECRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0034] A more complete understanding of the present disclosure, and the consequent advantages and future thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein.

[0035] FIG. 1 is the simplified sketch of Ekman transport along a coast leading to the upwelling of cold water along the coast (Stewart 2008). (a) Plan view. North winds along a west coast in the Northern Hemisphere cause the Ekman transport of surface water away from the shore, (b) Cross-section. The surface water transported offshore must be replaced by the upwelling of cold water from deep ocean layers.

[0036] FIG. 2. Diagrams (not to scale) from Collins (2001) to illustrate the theoretical essentials of a coastal upwelling (here shown for the Northern Hemisphere) in more detail, (a) Initial stage: wind stress along the shore causes surface transport 45° to the right of the wind, and Ekman transport (average motion in the wind-driven layer) 90° to the right of the wind, (b) Crosssection to illustrate the effect of conditions in (a): the divergence of surface waters away from the land leads to their replacement by upwelled subsurface water, and to a lowering of sea-level towards the coast, (c) As a result of the sloping sea surface, there is a horizontal pressure gradient directed towards the land (black arrows in (d)) and a geostrophic current develops 90° to the right of this pressure gradient. This 'slope' current flows along the coast and towards the Equator. The resultant surface transport, i.e., the transport caused by the combination of the surface transport at 45° to the wind stress and the slope current, still has an offshore component so upwelling continues, (d) Cross-section to illustrate the variation with depth of density (the blue lines are isopycnals) and pressure (the dashed black lines are isobars, and the horizontal arrows represent the direction and relative strength of the horizontal pressure gradient force). Isopycnals slope up towards the shore as cooler, denser water wells up to replace warmer, less dense surface water. The shoreward slope of the isobars decreases progressively with depth until they become horizontal; at this depth, the horizontal pressure gradient force is zero, and so the velocity of the geostrophic current is also zero. At greater depths, isobars slope up towards the coast indicating the existence of a northerly flow; a deep countercurrent is a common feature of coastal upwellings. [0037] FIG. 3 schematically shows the typical vertical structure of a coastal ocean upwelling (Collins 2001). The diagram shows the uppermost 200 m or so of the water column; the vertical scale here is greatly exaggerated. The wind is equatorward and out of the page. An inclined pycnocline, which is schematically shown in this diagram, separates the warmer near-surface water from the colder upwelling water. The inclined pycnocline is an intrinsic feature of coastal upwellings. A surface feature of the inclined pycnocline is the upwelling front on the sea surface. In a partial upwelling, however, the upwelling pycnocline may not reach the sea surface and, as a result, may not have a surface signature. The diagram includes a poleward-flowing countercurrent, which is found in most upwelling regions in eastern boundary currents. The water masses above and below the pycnocline therefore move in different directions; consequently, there is a velocity shear across the pycnocline. Note that the variety of upwelling regimes over different continental margins can be somewhat different, including the partial upwellings.

[0038] FIG. 4 shows another feature of the coastal upwelling structure (Kaempf and Chapman 2016). Oceanic influences on the outer continental shelf can precondition shelf waters with nutrients-rich water for subsequent wind-driven coastal upwelling events, which incorporate central regions of the shelf. The inner region of the continental shelf is defined by total water depths <50 m. It is a zone where surface and bottom Ekman layers interfere such that the wind- driven water movement is more aligned with the wind direction.

[0039] FIG. 5 is a satellite image of the temperature of the ocean surface from the spring of 2000 illustrating the spatial pattern of the costal upwelling on West Coast of the United States. Water temperatures are typically colder adjacent to shore than further offshore for most of the California coastline north of Point Conception — the bend in the coastline at 34.5 N. Notice that the strength of the upwelling, as evidenced by how far the cold water extends offshore, varies substantially along the coastline. Pronounced upwelling filaments, where upwelled water is pushed hundreds of miles offshore, are associated with several prominent points along the coastline - upwelling centres. Image courtesy of Sanctuary Quest 2002, NOAA/OER. [0040] FIG. 6. Global map showing the ocean eastern boundary currents and major perennial and seasonal upwellings. (After Hill et al. 1998.)

[0041] FIG. 7. (a) Coastal arid and semi-arid regions are associated with the coastal upwelling, (b) These regions are largely unpopulated due to desert type climate, (c) Remarkably, these coastal areas typically have ample surface wave energy. (After Atmocean: https://atmocean.wordpress.com/greening-the-deserts/)

[0042] FIG. 8. Map of 2020 California wildfires. https://en.wikipedia.Org/wiki/2020_Califomia_wildfires#/medi a/File:2020_Califomia_wildfires. png

[0043] FIG. 9. A wave-inertia pump (a, b) to deploy in the coastal ocean upwelling zone with an option of one or more additional outlets and a pressure reducing or pressure limiting valve that can be controlled electromechanically through a remote telecommand tool.

[0044] FIG. 10. Schematic diagram showing examples of the wave-inertia pump deployment in the coastal ocean upwelling zone.

[0045] FIG. 11. Development of Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability and large turbulent eddies by the artificial downwelling (computational model with the superimposed images imaging from X. F. Bai. Lecture 7, Turbulence: Ith.se/fileadmin/fm/Education/Courses/Combustion/Lect7_turbu .pdf). Qualitative conjecture is not to scale. The current velocity vectors 143 and 144 schematically show the presence of shear, which in this case is the change of the current velocity with depth. The presence of the current velocity shear in wind-driven coastal upwellings can be understood from the analysis of the coastal ocean circulation in upwelling areas (FIG. 2d and FIG. 3).

[0046] Each blue circle in FIG. 12 is a schematical representation of the position of wave-inertia pump clusters. A cluster comprises a single or plurality of wave-inertia pumps. The position of the hypothetical wave inertia pump clusters is superimposed here on a 5-year (July 1998-June 2003) composite of SST, derived from the daily high-resolution NOAA AVHRR and SeaWiFS ocean color data DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCLOSURE

[0047] This disclosure describes a method and means for controlling the coastal ocean upwelling by creating the artificial downwelling supplying the surface water to deeper layers whereby triggering disruption of the coastal upwelling.

[0048] Detailed embodiments are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely examples and that the systems and methods described below can be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the present subject matter in virtually any appropriately detailed structure and function. Further, the terms and phrases used herein are not intended to be limiting, but rather, to provide an understandable description of the concepts.

[0049] The terms “a” or “an”, as used herein, are defined as one or more than one. The term plurality, as used herein, is defined as two or more than two. The term another, as used herein, is defined as at least a second or more. The terms “including” and “having,” as used herein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language).

[0050] According to the NOAA definition, the term upwelling stands for a process in which deep, cold water rises toward the surface. In this disclosure, the term upwelling is reserved for the wind-driven coastal upwelling on a shelf (see, e.g., Longdill and Healy, 2008). This term can interchangeably be used in combinations like coastal upwelling or coastal ocean upwelling. The terms upwelling front or just front are used here intermittently and refer to the upwelling density front that is typically associated with the upwelling temperature front. In the case of full upwelling, such the front also has a surface feature.

[0051] In this disclosure, the term artificial downwelling refers to the technology that uses artificial methods to make water flow from the uppermost layer of a body of water to deeper layers (prior art, Patent No.: US 10,687,481). [0052] The upper ocean mixed layer, the ocean region adjacent to the air-sea interface, is typically tens of meters deep and is often well mixed; as a result, the temperature, salinity, and density are fairly uniform. The rapidly changing regions below these uniform regions are called the thermocline, halocline, or pycnocline (Kantha and Clayson 2002). In the case of a coastal ocean upwelling, the thermocline, halocline, and pycnocline are typically tilted.

[0053] The term western boundary current refers here to strong, warm, and persistent currents along the western boundaries of the world’s major ocean basins. The Gulf Stream is an example. The term eastern boundary current refers here to relatively wide, slow, and persistent currents along the eastern boundaries of the world’s major ocean basins. The California Current is an example. Major wind upwellings are found on the eastern side of oceans and seas.

[0054] A hydrodynamic instability in the ocean or any bodies of water may occur when there is a velocity shear (a change in velocity at right angles to the direction of the flow) either in a homogeneous fluid, or where there is a velocity difference between two fluids with a difference in density, for example, across the pycnocline. A pycnocline with the velocity difference will further be referred to as the sheared pycnocline. For coastal upwellings, the hydrodynamic instability developed in the sheared pycnocline may involve several modes including the Kelvin- Helmholtz type instability. The latter leads to increased turbulent mixing and friction in the water column, which trigger the hydrodynamic instability of the upwelling jet.

[0055] Upwelling jets contain significant kinetic and potential energy but are not smooth (laminar) flows. Consequently, upwelling jets are often only marginally stable, which means that they can be destabilized by a relatively small impact. The sheared upwelling pycnocline, as well as the upwelling jet flowing above this pycnocline, quickly become hydrodynamically unstable on time scales of days to weeks and shed mesoscale eddies (e.g., Aristegui et al. 1997, Kaempf and Chapman 2016). The mesoscale eddies in the coastal ocean can have diameters of 10-20 km, in contrast to the more commonly known open-ocean eddies that have diameters of up to 300 km. As a result of upwelling jet hydrodynamic instability and eddy shedding, the width of the upwelling zone generally increases along the coast in the direction of the upwelling jet. Fully developed eddy fields exhibit specific pathways, called filaments, along which upwelled water is advected offshore. Filaments, which can be quasi -stationary or transient features, generally operate as an export mechanism of the upwelled water to the open ocean. Filaments and eddies move and disperse cold water anomalies of the upwelling offshore and mix with surrounding warm waters. This a natural mechanism regulating the costal upwelling intensity.

[0056] This disclosure provides a method and means for the regulation of the strength of a coastal upwelling by triggering more frequent upwelling disruptions compared to how often they occur naturally. This method and means for the man-made regulation of a coastal upwelling comprise an artificial downwelling system intended for periodic destabilization and disruption of said coastal upwelling.

[0057] The artificial downwelling can be produced by the wave-inertia pump described in Patent No.: US 10,687,481 with the innovations described later in this disclosure. Patent No.: US 10,687,481 was to store the warm water supplied by wave-inertia pumps during the summer season in a calm near-bottom layer of the ocean with stable hydrodynamics and minimum mixing with surrounding waters to be stored in this layer until the winter season. In this disclosure, the wave-inertia pumps have a different function, which is to disrupt the coastal upwelling.

[0058] The artificial downwelling can be created by a moored, drifting, or self-propelled waveinertia pump or a plurality of the wave-inertia pumps. With reference to FIG. 9a and b, the waveinertia pump comprises the long pipe 110 disposed within the water body 200 to extend from the surface to the deep water in the range from 10 to 200 meters. The upper surface of the pipe is connected to a buoyant flotation device or material 120, pipe 110 further includes one or more one-way valves 130 which are oriented to allow water flow within the pipe substantially downwards only. In this embodiment, a pivoting stop 132 is shown; however, other valve structures can be used as understood within the art of hydraulic valves. Pipe 110 can be oriented vertically to present the shortest path of deep water, although pipe 110 may be disposed temporarily or almost permanently at an angle due to the force of currents or other environment conditions. Pipe 1 10 can be manufactured from any known material that has sufficient strength and durability in seawater for example including metal, plastic, fiberglass, carbon fiber, or composite material. Pipe 110 can be manufactured in sections, for example using materials and methods used for underground drilling beneath water bodies. Flotation materials 120 are affixed near the top of the pipe at the as depicted in FIG. 9, or they may be positioned at other locations along the length of pipe 110 to dispose the upper region 136 of pipe 110 at a desired position relative to the surface of the water body.

[0059] For the specific application here, a wave-inertia pump can include, as new elements, an option with one or more additional outlets (300) and pressure reducing or pressure limiting valves (301) installed on the upper region 136 of pipe 110 or elsewhere on the pipe. The pressure reducing or limiting valve 301 can be controlled electromechanically through remote telecommand tools whereby regulating the discharge of the downwelling water through the main (138) and optional (300) outlets. A single or plurality of remotely controlled pressure reducing or pressure limiting valves can also be installed in other parts of pipe 110.

[0060] The function of the wave-inertia pump is to move the surface water to deeper layers. The amount of water pumped corresponds to the vertical displacement of the pipe due to movement of flotation materials 120 by surface waves and the diameter of the pipe, among other factors. Remarkably, the major coastal upwellings and some other coastal upwellings have ample surface wave energy (FIG. 7c), which creates favorable conditions for the application of wave-inertia pumps to control coastal upwellings.

[0061] From comparing FIG. 6 and FIG. 7a, it follows that coastal upwelling is one of the main factors in the formation of arid and semi-arid coastal climates. The coastal upwelling regions are largely unpopulated due to desert type climates (FIG. 7b). At the same time, these coastal areas typically have ample surface wave energy (FIG. 7c), which is a favorable factor for the implementation of wave-inertial pumps shown in FIG. 9.

[0062] In another embodiment, the wave-inertia pump can include a thruster powered by the wave or solar energy with a backup battery to change or maintain its position relative to the coastline, bottom topography, upwelling front, upwelling centres, and fdaments.

[0063] In another embodiment, the artificial downwelling system can be deployed on the central shelf between the inner shelf and outer shelf (FIG. 4). [0064] Tn another embodiment, the artificial downwelling can be set on the oceanic side of the upwelling front, push the relatively warm and less dense surface water to the colder and denser deep water found in or below the sheared pycnocline to initiate a convective-shear hydrodynamic instability of the Kelvin-Helmholtz type within the sheared pycnocline and upwelling waters and trigger the instability of the upwelling jet.

[0065] In other words, the upwelling waters affected by the gravitational convection induced by injection of the surface water can initiate the convective-shear hydrodynamic instability of the Kelvin-Helmholtz type within upwelling waters and trigger generation of eddies and fdaments reducing the strength of said upwelling. In this disclosure, we utilize this hydrodynamic phenomenon known from other applications in order to disrupt and mix upwelling waters with surrounding warmer waters. The convective-shear hydrodynamic instability caused by the artificial downwelling can result in a larger scale instability including ocean eddies and filaments pushing cold upwelling waters offshore.

[0066] As shown in the composite plot in FIG. 1 1, the Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability increases the vertical mixing and friction between sheard layers. Energetics of the Kelvin- Helmholtz type instability significantly exceeds the thermal energy being injected into upwelling waters by the artificial upwelling required to trigger this instability. This phenomenon helps reduce the number of wave-inertial pumps required for controlling the coastal upwelling.

[0067] The presence of shear is a necessary condition for the development of Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability. The intrinsic shear across the pycnocline associated with coastal upwellings is revealed from the analysis of FIG. 2d and FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows that the warm surface water and cold deep water move in opposite directions, which results in the vertical shear. The buoyant convection of warm water injected into deeper layers by artificial downwelling can result in the Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability across the sheared layers, which significantly increases turbulent friction and mixing with surrounding water layers. As mentioned above, a similar effect has been observed in different (not related to downwelling) environmental conditions (the diurnal cycle in the upper layer of the ocean) and reproduced with a computational fluid dynamics model by Soloviev and Lukas (2006) and Soloviev and Lukas (2014). [0068] FIG. 10 (a, b, and c) shows three possible configurations (but not limited to) of the waveinertia pump deployment relative to the position of pycnocline, upwelling, and cold deep-water undercurrent. The schematic diagram of the wave-inertia pump deployment in the coastal ocean upwelling zone is as follows: (a) the main pump outlet is within the depth range of upwelling waters and cold deep-water undercurrent while additional outlets are closed; (b) the main pump outlet is within the depth range of upwelling waters and the sheared pycnocline while additional outlets are closed; (c) the main pump outlet is within the depth range of upwelling waters and the cold deep-water undercurrent while the additional outlet is open within the depth range of upwelling waters and the sheared pycnocline. The additional outlet(s) 300 may help address the natural variability of the coastal upwelling in depth and position.

[0069] In one embodiment, being moored on the oceanic side of the upwelling front, as shown in FIG. 12, the wave-inertia pump or plurality of wave-inertia pumps push the surface water to deeper cold layers. After leaving outlet 138 or/and outlet 300, the surface warm and less dense water undergoes buoyant convection in the upward direction, which triggers a convective- shear hydrodynamic instability of the Kelvin-Helmholtz type and the instability of the upwelling jet leading to disruption of the upwelling.

[0070] In the case of a partial upwelling, for which the front may not have any surface features, identifying the front location may require standard oceanographic observations like a CTD crossshelf transect or an acoustic sounding (e.g., by a ship, AUV, glider, etc.) before deploying the artificial downwelling system.

[0071] The wave-inertia pump deployed on the oceanic side of the upwelling front can affect the coastal upwelling by the following three processes:

1. Supplying the thermal energy directly into upwelling waters, thus increasing the temperature of the upwelled water

2. Entraining the water from above the pycnocline, thus additionally increasing the temperature of the upwelled water

3. Triggering the convective-shear instability of Kelvin-Helmholtz type and consecutive instability of the upwelling jet that disrupts the coastal upwelling locally at the location of the artificial downwelling system and non-locally on the scale of coastal ocean eddies and filaments. These three processes will help control said coastal upwelling with the artificial downwelling.

[0072] Additionally, the geostrophic current schematically shown in FIG. 2c and tides (not shown in FIG. 2c) but almost always presents can extend the mixing zone 140 shown in FIG. 10 downstream and upstream thus enlarging the area of the upwelling disruption. As a result, a smaller number of wave-inertia pumps will be required to mitigate adverse upwelling effects over larger coastal areas.

[0073] In another exemplary embodiment, the wave-inertia pumps are to be installed near the upwelling centres 10 (FIG. 12).

[0074] In the exemplary embodiment schematically shown in FIG. 12, clusters of wave-inertia pumps can be set near upwelling centres, on the oceanic side of the upwelling front and outside of the upwelling filaments. The position of nine clusters of wave-inertia pumps is superimposed in this figure on a 5 -year composite of sea surface temperature, derived from the daily high- resolution NOAA AVHRR and SeaWiFS ocean color data satellites.

[0075] A few wave-inertia pump clusters can control, for example, the prominent upwelling centre around Pt. Reyes, California (FIG. 5).

[0076] The disruption of the coastal ocean upwelling with an artificial downwelling will increase the sea surface temperature and evaporation from the sea surface in the coastal area, consequently increasing air humidity and precipitation, promoting green infrastructure, and reducing the incidence of forest fires.

[0077] Furthermore, harmful algal blooms can develop in the coastal upwelling areas due to high concentrations of nutrients in the upwelling water (Kaempf and Chapman 2016). Control of the upwelling intensity may therefore help to regulate harmful algal blooms.

[0078] Manufacturing, deployment, and maintenance of wave-inertia pump clusters in upwelling areas include the ship time and navigation considerations. Preliminary estimates nevertheless suggest that the total costs will be only a small percentage of the loses caused by adverse effects of costal upwellings. [0079] As a new element, the wave-inertia pump may have a side outlet 300 (FIG. 10c), or more similar side outlets, to adjust to the specific upwelling structure. The cross-section area of the outlet 300 can be mechanically adjusted before the deployment at sea. The pressure reducing or limiting valve 301 that regulate the discharge rate of the artificial upwelling can be adjusted before the deployment at sea as well.

[0080] In another exemplary embodiment, the cross-section area of the additional outlet 300 (or a plurality of outlets) and a pressure reducing or pressure limiting valve(s) can be controlled electromechanically through a remote telecommand tool during the artificial downwelling system operation at sea. The coastal upwelling can then be regulated by the artificial downwelling system based on the available in-situ oceanographic and atmospheric data and remote sensing measurements. Since the action of artificial downwelling on local weather takes some time to develop for certain applications, including mitigating wildfire risks, accurately predicting fire weather conditions such as strong winds, low humidity, dry fuels, and time of day are of critical importance for optimizing the operational schedule of the artificial upwelling. Typical strong wildfire events, such as during Santa Ana winds in California, include a dramatic crash of relative humidity to single digits and wind gusts up to 50-70 mph. The forecasts based on atmospheric pressure differences between specific observation sites used to estimate the risk of wildfires in California, for example the pressure difference LAX-DAG for Santa Ana, SBA- SMX for Sundowner Winds, can be implemented as a guidance for remotely controlled artificial downwelling system. A 10 mbar or larger offshore difference in the atmospheric pressure predicts a significant wind event and higher risks of wildfires (Phillips 2021). The increase of the sea surface temperature in coastal waters due to the upwelling disruption can result in an increase of the partial pressure of vapor by several mbar, which can reduce the offshore pressure difference to non-critical values and thus reduce the risk of wildfires.

[0081] If a wildfire has already started, fire properties can be measured and monitored in realtime by remote sensing technologies. GOES-R Satellite Series Advanced Baseline Imager (AB I) can detect heat signatures of wildfires with high time and space resolution. GEOS ABI and live interactive web cameras (where available) provide early wildfire detection almost instantaneously (Schmidt and Strenfel 2021). A wildfire computer model, assimilating environmental conditions (e.g., WiFire), can then predict severity and the spreading patterns, distilling the numerous fires that occur and identify (through detection technologies) which fires pose the most risk and deserve priority in analysis (Tardy 2021). Computational models combined with artificial intelligence (machine learning) may also be helpful to predict wildfires and optimize the schedule of the artificial downwelling system operation.

[0082] The geographic locations where the disclosure can be deployed include, but not limited to, for example, the Central California coast of the North Pacific Ocean (FIG. 12). The disclosure applies to the coastal upwelling areas where the coastal ocean experiences wave action due to wind and/or swell waves (see FIG. 7c). The suitable upwelling areas where the disclosure can be deployed are coastal areas of the major eastern boundary currents such as the Canary Current (off Northwest Africa), the Benguela Current (off southern Africa), the California Current (off California and Oregon), the Humboldt Current (off Peru and Chile), and the Somalia Current (off Somalia and Oman) (FIG. 6) and the coastal upwelling areas in Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

[0083] The disclosure can advantageously be utilized during the years and months when the upwelling intensity is the highest and the air is the driest and most susceptive to forest fires (FIG. 8). These conditions can form due to the local events like Santa Ana winds, seasonal cycle of coastal upwellings, or multi-year climate oscillations such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation cycle or longer period cycles.

[0084] FIG. 5 demonstrates that the abrupt change in coastline orientation at Pt. Conception creates a sharp transition between upwelling regions to the north of the Pt. Conception and warmer waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. Remarkably, there is a corresponding reduction of forest fire incidents in the coastal areas south of Pt. Conception (see FIG. 8). This emphasizes a connection between coastal upwellings and the incidents of forest fire in the related coastal areas.

[0085] By reducing or temporarily eliminating the coastal upwelling by the artificial downwelling, the disclosure provides a method for promoting green infrastructure and agriculture, reducing the incidence of forest fires in the related arid and semi -arid coastal regions, and mitigating harmful algal blooms. While the central California coast is one example of an advantageous region for the implementation of disclosure (for example, as shown in FIG. 12), the disclosure can likewise be applied to mitigate or moderate climatic extremes related to the coastal ocean upwelling in other geographic locations of the world, particularly in the major upwelling areas depicted in FIG. 6.

[0086] In a summary of this section, the disclosure describes a method and means for mitigating adverse coastal ocean upwelling effects by creating an artificial downwelling supplying the surface water to deeper layers and disrupting said upwelling. The artificial downwelling can be produced with a free-floating, self-propelled, or anchored wave-inertia pump or plurality of said wave-inertia pumps, with the adjusted tube lengths including one or several outlets at different depths based on the oceanographic survey of the upwelling area. The productivity of the waveinertia pump can be regulated by pressure reducing or limiting valves and changing outlet’s cross section. The wave-inertia pumps deployed on the oceanic (warmer) side of the upwelling front will pump the warm surface water in or below the sheared pycnocline. The warmer surface water undergoing buoyant convection in the colder deeper water will trigger a convective-shear hydrodynamic instability in the layer of upwelling waters leading to the instability of the upwelling jet and disruption of said coastal upwelling, which will increase the sea surface temperature in the coastal area. The increased sea surface temperature will intensify evaporation and air humidification. The increase of the sea surface temperature of coastal waters due to the upwelling disruption will increase the air partial vapor pressure, which then can reduce the offshore atmosphere pressure difference, reduce occasions of significant wind events, and finally reduce the risk of wildfires in adjacent coastal areas. Additionally, the air humidification will result in more frequent coastal rains, which will further reduce incidences of forest fires. By reducing or temporarily eliminating the coastal upwelling by the artificial downwelling, the disclosure provides a method for promoting green infrastructure while reducing the incidence of wildfires in arid and semi-arid coastal regions. Mitigating harmful algal blooms in the coastal upwelling is another application of this invention. For preserving fishery while still mitigating arid and semi-arid climates in coastal areas the productivity of the artificial downwelling system can be controlled through remote telemetry.

[0087] The art that the present disclosure is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above to the contrary, it should be noted that all the accompanying drawings are not to scale. There are many different features to the present disclosure, and it is completed that these features may be used together or separately. Thus, the disclosure should not apply to any particular combination of features or to a particular application of the disclosure might occur to those skilled in the art to which the disclosure pertains. Accordingly, all expedient modifications readily attainable by one versed in the art from the disclosure set forth herein that are within the scope and spirit of the present disclosure are to be included as further embodiments of the present disclosure.

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