Mexican California Current Ocean Monitoring Data Since 1997

IMECOCAL is a long-term ocean monitoring program for the Mexican sector of the California Current off Baja California. The program, modeled after CalCOFI, has conducted quarterly research cruises since October 1997. It is maintained by SCIOPS to study ecosystem responses to climate change and fisheries practices.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in CTD cast profiles (temperature, salinity to 1000m) for climate variability studies.
• Model fish larval distributions (ichthyoplankton) from standard oblique bongo tow samples across station grids.
• Correlate dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll concentrations from water samples with primary productivity measurements.
• Map upper ocean currents using continuous ADCP profiling data from monitoring cruises.
• Assess seasonal macrozooplankton community changes from quarterly cruise data spanning over two decades.

Strengths

• Quarterly time-series data collection since 1997, providing over 20 years of seasonal observations.
• Spatial coverage includes a grid of stations extending up to 220 nautical miles offshore with 40-nautical-mile line spacing.
• Multifaceted data collection includes CTD casts, water chemistry, plankton tows, primary productivity, and ADCP current mapping.

Limitations

• Specific row counts, column details, and sample data availability are unknown from the provided description.
• Geographic scope is limited to the Mexican sector of the California Current, which may not represent the entire system.

Provenance

Source

SCIOPS via NASA EarthData (platform: nasa_earthdata).

Collection Method

Quarterly oceanographic monitoring cruises using CTD casts, water sampling, plankton nets, ADCP, and continuous underway systems.

Time Range

From October 1997 to present (ongoing).

Freshness

Data collection is ongoing with quarterly cruises; however, the last updated date for the dataset is unknown.

Geography

Southern region of the California Current off Baja California, Mexico, including stations near Guadalupe Island and San Quintin.