The wind-driven seaward movement of warm coastal surface water and its associated displacement by cold bottom water describes the oceanic process of coastal upwelling. As cold deep water rises to the surface, vital nutrients necessary to sustain abundant and varied sea life are replenished. Although marine ecosystems may be periodically enriched due to the effects of coastal upwelling, they may ultimately suffer harm due to adverse after effects such as rates of organic consumption exceeding available nutrients, reduction in dissolved oxygen levels due to organic decay, and the explosive growth of harmful toxin-bearing algal species. There is evidence that these negative effects can be detected in simultaneous satellite observations of sea surface temperature, wind, and chlorophyll-a concentrations.
    
     Incidents of coastal upwelling during the summer of 2000 were identified along the northeastern coast of North Carolina (from Cape Hatteras to the Virginia Commonwealth border) by comparing archived in-situ near and offshore wind and temperature measurements with sea surface temperatures deduced from observations by the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) on board several of NOAA’s Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES). Near-shore in-situ wind direction, wind speed and water temperature data were recorded by instruments located at the Duck Army Field Research Facility and the NOAA National Data Buoy Center (Buoy #44014, positioned 60 miles off the coast). The data was used to verify the occurrence of coastal upwelling along the northeastern North Carolina coast from July 15th to the 31st of the year 2000.