THE 1997-98 EL NIÑO ATLAS OF OCEANOGRAPHIC CONDITIONS ALONG THE WEST COAST OF NORTH AMERICA

Institute of Ocean Science, BC, Canada
College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State Univ., USA
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, CA, USA
Naval Postgraduate School, CA, USA
Marine Research Life Group, SIO, CA, USA
National Marine Fisheries Service, CA, USA
Southwest Fisheries Service Center, CA, USA
Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, México
Centro de Investigación Científica y Educación Superior, México

  All the hydrographic data collected along the west coast of North America between January 1997 to January 1999 have been compiled into this atlas of the 1997-98 El Niño event. Our main objective was to make this data available to the oceanographic community.

   The data corresponds to the most frequently sampled transects along the West coast (Fig. 1). These transects and their responsible scientific institutions are listed on Table 1. 

   This atlas also contains the vertical distributions of eight hydrographic variables for each transect during the different cruises (see Table 2 for cruises chronology).  Finally, we have also included time-distance plots of the different variables for CalCOFI lines 90, 80, 67, NH Line and Line P.

   Methods for data collection and processing for each region are summarized in different manuscripts of this issue (Durazo & Baumgartner, Lynn & Bograd, Collins et al., Chavez et al., Huyer et al., Corwith & Wheeler, Whitney & Welch, Progress in Oceanography, this issue).  Table 3 summarizes measurements and sampling protocols for the different sub regions.

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