• Speaker: Daniel L. Rudnick, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA

Esporles, May 30, 2018. The overarching goal of the California Underwater Glider Network (CUGN) is to sustain baseline observations of climate variability in the California Current System (CCS).

The CUGN uses Spray underwaterand since 2005 the CUGN has covered 250,000 km over ground in 33 glider-years, while doing 110,000 dives.

These data are used to produce a climatology whose products are, for each observed variable, a mean field, an annual cycle, and the anomaly from the annual cycle.

The analysis includes a weighted least-squares fit to derive the mean and annual cycle, and an objective map to produce the anomaly.

The final results are variables on rectangular grids in depth, distance offshore, and time.

The mean fields are finely resolved sections across the main flows in the CCS, including the poleward California Undercurrent and the equatorward California Current.

The annual cycle shows a phase change from the surface to the thermocline, reflecting the effects of air/sea fluxes at the surface and upwelling in the thermocline.

The interannual anomalies are examined with an emphasis on climate events of the last ten years including the 2009-2010 El Niño, the 2010-2011 La Niña, the warm anomaly of 2014-2015, and the 2015-2016 El Niño.

Date and Time: Friday, June 1, 12:00-13:00h

Place: IMEDEA Seminar Room

Source: IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB)