| The region located in the far northeast of the Gulf of Guinea (NEGG), eastern tropical Atlantic, remains poorly documented due to a lack of available in situ ocean data. Heavy rainfall and intense river discharges observed in this region induce a strong salinity stratification that may have a significant impact on the mixed layer depth and on sea surface temperatures, through the so-called barrier-layer effect. By using recent in situ data and climatological outputs from a numerical simulation, we reveal the existence of a barrier layer in the NEGG and describe its seasonal occurrence. In the NEGG, the barrier layer limits the mixed layer depth. From January to March, significant values for the barrier-layer thickness are observed mostly due to the... |
