The physical oceanographic environment during the CCE-LTER Years: Changes in climate and concepts

The broad-scale climate variations that occurred over the North Pacific and CCS during this time period are discussed here to provide physical context for the CCE-LTER time series observations and the CCE-LTER Process Cruises. Data assimilation fits, using the Regional Ocean Modeling System four-dimensional data assimilation framework, were successfully executed for the 1-month time period surrounding each of the Process Cruises. The fits provide additional information about how the physical flows evolve during the course of the multi-week Process Cruises. Relating these physical states to the numerous biological measurements gathered by the CCE-LTER time series observations and during the Process Cruises will yield vital long-term perspective of how changing climate conditions control the ocean ecosystem in this region and information on how this important ecosystem can be expected to evolve over the coming decades.