Table of Contents

• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Parameters
• Instruments
• Deployments
• Project Information
• Program Information
• Funding

NEP AVHRR Sea Surface Temperature Archive Web Site
At this website, one can view satellite fields over the regions of interest to the U.S. GLOBEC North-East Pacific (NEP) program ( http://zanclopus.biol.berkeley.edu/lab/globec/globec.html). Funding to create and maintain this web site is provided by NSF (Ocean Sciences - Biological Oceanography) and NASA (Earth Science Enterprise - Biological Oceanography).The viewable satellite fields will eventually include:
(1) Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from the NOAA AVHRR sensors over three regions - the California Current System (CCS), the coastal Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) and the entire NE Pacific, (NEP) with 1km, 3km and 9km resolutions;
(2) surface pigment concentrations from the SeaWiFS sensor over the CCS and CGOA with 4km resolution;
(3) gridded surface height fields from altimeters over the entire NEP and specific regions, with resolutions to be determined by requests for specific applications.

At present, only AVHRR SST data are available: 9-km resolution Pathfinder fields over the entire NEP and 1-3km resolution fields over the CCS (see below). Actual access of the data is through anonymous ftp at ftp://pisco.oce.orst.edu/ebc To read more about the ftp site: AAGBCREADME.TXT

Other environmental data of interest to U.S. GLOBEC NEP researchers (coastal winds, temperatures, sea levels, upwelling indices, etc)., are available on the website maintained by the Pacific Environmental Fisheries Laboratory ( http://www.pfeg.noaa.gov/index.html).

All images from dates earlier than July 1, 2005 have been processed and navigated by Ocean Imaging of Solana Beach, CA. Images dated July 1, 2005 and later are generously provided by Dave Foley of NOAA Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory.

Images are mapped to a simple rectangular grid, so each pixel represents a constant area in degrees longitude and latitude. The images begin in the northwest corner and are stored top down. Element (1,1) is the north west corner, element (1,512) is the north east corner, element (512,1) is south west and (512,512) is south east.

There are usually 2 AVHRR satellites passing over the west coast of N. America, making available 2 - 4 images per day for any given area. After July 1, 2005, more than 3-4 images may be present since any data capture with data in the area of interest is included.

For the old-style EBC California current images described under 3., only images which were judged to contain useful cloud-free areas are archived; rarely do all images from a given day meet this criterion.

For images dated earler than July 1, 2005: When the coast is visible, Ocean Imaging is supposed to be correcting the navigation to within 1 pixel using known coastal points, although some of the images have larger errors. These are often cloudy or foggy near the coast, making an exact determination of the coast location difficult.

Program in a Nutshell

Goal: To understand the effects of climate variability and climate change on the distribution, abundance and production of marine animals (including commercially important living marine resources) in the eastern North Pacific. To embody this understanding in diagnostic and prognostic ecosystem models, capable of capturing the ecosystem response to major climatic fluctuations.

Approach: To study the effects of past and present climate variability on the population ecology and population dynamics of marine biota and living marine resources, and to use this information as a proxy for how the ecosystems of the eastern North Pacific may respond to future global climate change. The strong temporal variability in the physical and biological signals of the NEP will be used to examine the biophysical mechanisms through which zooplankton and salmon populations respond to physical forcing and biological interactions in the coastal regions of the two gyres. Annual and interannual variability will be studied directly through long-term observations and detailed process studies; variability at longer time scales will be examined through retrospective analysis of directly measured and proxy data. Coupled biophysical models of the ecosystems of these regions will be developed and tested using the process studies and data collected from the long-term observation programs, then further tested and improved by hindcasting selected retrospective data series.

U.S. GLOBEC (GLOBal ocean ECosystems dynamics) is a research program organized by oceanographers and fisheries scientists to address the question of how global climate change may affect the abundance and production of animals in the sea.

The U.S. GLOBEC Program currently had major research efforts underway in the Georges Bank / Northwest Atlantic Region, and the Northeast Pacific (with components in the California Current and in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska). U.S. GLOBEC was a major contributor to International GLOBEC efforts in the Southern Ocean and Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP).