Quantifying eddy-chlorophyll covariability in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska

► We quantify eddy-chlorophyll interaction from coupled empirical orthogonal functions. ► We decompose the covariance between chlorophyll and eddy kinetic energy from observations and model output. ► Chlorophyll variability is related to synoptic-scale eddies using the cross-wavelet power spectrum and correlation maps. ► Model-observation comparisons include interactions across a range of spatial and temporal scales.