The VOCALS Peru Cruise was carried out in October 2008 in the Peruvian upwelling center of Pisco (13 S)-San Juan (15 S) on board the Peruvian research vessel Jose Olaya Balandra.

In the frame of the VOCALS Program, the study of the Pisco region is of particular importance for the study of coupled processes at the regional scale, as it is the siege of highly variable along-shore atmospheric coastal jet associated with strong coastal upwelling events and important oceanic mesoscale activity. Important effects on the upwelling ecosystem are expected which might play a significant role on the offshore transport of coastal upwelled water properties.

The VOCALS Peru cruise aims at understanding air-sea-land-cloud interactions near 15 S and their impacts on the local ecosystem. The data collected include measurements of the main ecosystem compartments and thus provide a comprehensive description of the oceanic and atmospheric circulations, thermodynamical structures and the associated biological response.

This paper presents a summary of the preliminary results of that cruise, and specifically of hydrology and dynamics. The cruise results are compared with a 3-dimensional, high-resolution, regional climatology of the North Humboldt Current System (NHCS-Clim).