Sea-air interactions in the costal circulation around Gran Canaria Island (Spain)

Abstract

This paper presents the results of analyzing six months of simultaneous records of water levels, currents, wind and atmospheric pressure that have been collected outside the surf zone at three locations in the eastern coast of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain). The results shown in this paper concern mainly one of the coastal stations, placed at the port of Las Palmas city. Although tides and currents use to be astronomically dominated, a non-permanent term appears in certain time intervals, identified as a long wave -rotary type- with a frequency very close to the inertial one. Another interesting result is the appearance of harmonic tidal periodicites in the atmospheric variables, which suggest a higher importance of the meteoroligical tides or/and a strong interaction sea-air.