Release of Version 2 of an all in-situ high-resolution Northeast Pacific Regional Ocean Climatology (NEPv2)

Ocean observations have, in the past, been difficult to achieve and expensive to conduct. But with the increase in technology, from autonomous floats to unmanned vehicles, a wealth of in situ observations have given the chance to fill in spatial and temporal data gaps that have previously existed. NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information’s (NCEI) Ocean Climate Lab (OCL) has used in situ observations from their World Ocean Database (WOD) to create high-resolution climatologies in various regions. The Northeast Pacific Regional Ocean Climatology version 2 (NEP-RC v2) is the latest updated product in the suite of regional climatologies offered by the group to document long-term ocean trends in the region.

The Northeast Pacific (NEP) is the home to the well-known California Current System (CCS) and a large coastal upwelling zone that makes the west coast of North America one of the most productive ecosystems in the world. Broad-scale climate forcing such as the El Nino/La Nina and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation have a large influence on the strength of the upwelling zone each year. Fisheries are an important part of the socioeconomic landscape of this region and there are numerous efforts to maintain a sustainable blue economy in the region in the face of a changing climate.

This new edition is based on the latest release of the World Ocean Database (WOD23) and utilizes all newly available data added to WOD23 since the WOD18 release on which the NEP RC v1 was based. The NEP RC v2 offers high-resolution (1°,1/4°, and 1/10°) quality-controlled temperature and salinity climatological fields calculated on standard depth levels from the surface to 5,200m depth. These fields are prepared as annual, seasonal, and monthly averages covering the entire period from 1955-2022 as well as seven decadal time periods: 1955-64, 1965-74. 1975-84, 1985-94, 1995-2004, 2005-14, 2015-2022. Incorporating all ­in-situ­ data, NEP RC v2 can be instrumental to numerical models, fisheries research, and other related applications to assess changing long-term trends due to climate change in the region.