Current Status of Accomplishment or Milestone: Code has been developed to generate monthly upwelling indices in the
world's major coastal upwelling ecosystems. Six-hourly and daily index time series will be generated shortly.
Background: On a monthly basis, PFEL generates indices of large-scale, wind-induced coastal upwelling along the west coast of North America. The idea behind the indices was to develop simple time series that represent variations in coastal upwelling. Daily and monthly index time series are provided regularly to scientists and managers concerned with marine ecosystems and their biota, and have been used in scores of studies and scientific publications.
Purpose of Activity/Goal of Project: Following on the popularity of the upwelling indices in the California Current System and the availability of global pressure fields since 1981, PFEL is preparing similar upwelling time series for other major eastern boundary current ecosystems; the Benguela, Canary and Peru-Chile regions.
Description of Accomplishment and Significant Results: Monthly upwelling indices have been generated for the Benguela, Canary and Peru-Chile eastern boundary current regions. Algorithms used to compute these series were developed from those used routinely to calculate pressure-derived ocean transport products, including the upwelling index for the U.S. west coast.
PFEL is now producing a monthly upwelling index and anomalies for the Peru-Chile Current region at 3° increments from 15°S to 45°S. Time series of the monthly upwelling indices were created from 1981-present, and presented to by the SWC Science Director at the US-Chile cooperative fisheries talks in August. The computing and archiving of 6-hourly upwelling index values for the Peru-Chile Current will be completed shortly. Similarly, time series have been created at 3° intervals for the Canary Current (12°N to 48°N) and for the Benguela Current from (15°S to 33°S), and will be available on line shortly. These series have been prepared for selected locations, and are presently being examined for their quality by scientists working in that region. The monthly series from the Peru-Chile System can now be accessed on PFEL's home page.
Significance of Accomplishment (e.g., to the Center, to Management, and to NMFS Strategic plan Goals): These products now provide an index of coastal upwelling in the world's major biologically productive eastern boundary current systems. This will permit scientists studying these regions to relate fisheries production to environmental variability. They will also improve our ability to compare the California Current system to similar ecosystems elsewhere.
Key Contact: Frank Schwing (831-648-9034, fschwing@pfeg.noaa.gov)