Monitoring and Predicting the California Current System with Global and Regional Models

Given the ecological and socioeconomic importance of the California Current System (CCS), there is broad interest in monitoring and modeling its variability on multiple timescales. To that end, regional ocean models have become indispensable tools for leveraging available observations to predict conditions in unobserved locations and understand physical and biogeochemical dynamics. In this talk, I will present recent advances in (i) monitoring CCS variability, specifically with new model-based upwelling indices that improve upon the historical "Bakun Index" by better representing the effects of wind forcing, ocean circulation, and subsurface nutrient variability, and (ii) using these indices to understand bottom-up drivers of ecosystem productivity along the U.S. west coast.

Speaker: Michael Jacox, Research Oceanographer, NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center