Monitoring North Pacific Heat Content Variability: An Indicator of Fish Quantity?

Abstract

Fields of modeled sea surface heights and temperatures are used to develop an algorithm to monitor the low-frequency heat content variability of the North Pacific's midlatitudes associated with regime shifts in the circulation patterns of the Alaskan and the California Currents. Data from altimetric and infrared satellites are then used to apply the method using observational measurements. The model shows that the midlatitude Pacific subsurface circulation variability is primarily due to large, low-frequency horizontal north?south gyre movement. The changes may also be due to large-scale atmospheric changes in wind patterns, local mixing, as well as internal dynamics. It is proposed that this type of monitoring might be useful to help with understanding the variability in fisheries.