Pacific Fisheries Environmental Laboratory
National Marine Fisheries Service
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
PFEL Daily Upwelling Index Products
On a monthly basis, PFEL generates indices of the intensity of large-scale, wind-induced coastal
upwelling at 15 standard locations along the west coast of North America. The indices are based on estimates
of offshore Ekman transport driven by geostrophic wind stress. Geostrophic winds are derived from six-hourly synoptic
and monthly mean surface atmospheric pressure fields. The pressure fields are provided by the U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical
Meteorological and Oceanographic Center (FNMOC), Monterey
CA. For a further description of the upwelling products and methods used in their derivation,
please see the Products page
and the following references:
- Bakun, A. 1973. Coastal upwelling indices, west coast of North America,
1946-71. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Tech. Rep., NMFS SSRF-671, 103p.
- Bakun, A. 1975. Daily and weekly upwelling indices, west coast of North
America, 1967-73. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Tech. Rep., NMFS SSRF-693,
114p.
- Mason, J.E. and A. Bakun. 1986. Upwelling index update, U.S. west coast,
33N-48N latitude. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, NOAA Tech. Memo.
NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFC-67, 81p.
- Schwing, F.B. , M. O'Farrell, J. Steger and K. Baltz. 1996. Coastal
Upwelling Indices, West coast of North America, 1946-1995. U.S. Dept. of
Commerce, NOAA Tech. Memo. NOAA-TM-NMFS-SWFC-231, 207p.
