Introduction
The eastern boundary of the Pacific basin contains several regions where upwelling of colder, nutrient-rich water occurs during certain times of the year. This includes: coastal promontories near Oregon and California; off-shore mountain gap regions in central America and shelf regions subject to alongshore equatorward winds. I am interested in studying how these upwelling regions are simulated in numerical models compared to what we know from observations and understanding the role they play in the larger circulation.
The above figure shows average vertical profiles of temperature from the ARGO profiling network between March and May 2000-2005. Between 5 and 10 degrees latitude, a front separates 13C water with comparatively weak stratification from more tightly stratified fluid to the north and south. Studies have suggested a link between this front, subsurface eastward jets and upwelling offshore of Peru and Costa Rica (McCreary et al, 2002)
This image shows SSH anomalies near the peak of the 1997 ENSO. Notice the high SSH along the eastern equatorial Pacific, and the California coast up into the Gulf of Alaska. The coastal signal results from poleward-propagating coastally trapped waves originating in the western equatorial Pacific. ENSO-related changes along the coastal boundary have a known impact on marine mammal populations, for example. The circumstances under which such signals impact local ecosystems depend on dominant weather patterns and pre-existing hydrographic conditions (Chavez).
Using Satellites to monitor upwelling
USWC microwave SST on 02/07/1998 and SST difference at two week intervals from left to right, top to bottom. Note the springtime upwelling off Southern California.
Bib.
The 2006 Proceedings of Oceanography review by Fiedler and Talley is a great read. Limited to the large scale hydrography.
gap winds in central America and mixing.
Delayed upwelling alters nearshore coastal upwelling in the northern california current
Could CO2-induced land-cover feedbacks alter near-shore upwelling regimes?
The California Current system: The seasonal variability of its physical characteristics
The separating coastal upwelling jet at Cape Blanco, Oregon and its connection to the california current
Equilibrium structure and dynamics of the california current system
California Current Modeling - Do observations corroborate the modeled phenomena?
This is a nice interactive site using LAS to retrieve USWC Ocean Data
This is a link to Teresa Chereskin's page. Her research is focused on eddy dynamics in the California Coastal Reggion.
Hydrography of the Eastern Tropical Pacific - A Review
Ph.D. thesis of Emanuele Di Lorenzo
OpenDAP URL for USWC chloryphll data
Chavez paper on variability in southern California nutrients, temperature, and winds.
From anchovies to sardines and back
Wang and Feidler paper on ENSO-related variability. Interesting look at individual events and the differences in the evolution of SST.
Nitrous oxide release into the atmosphere due to denitrification in the oxygen minimum layer.
millenial scale changes in oxygen minima inferred from core samples.
variability observed in depth of OML
