IFOP presented the preliminary results of Southeast Pacific XXV Joint Regional Oceanographic Research Cruise  held in 2022.
21 December, 2022

IFOP presented the preliminary results of Southeast Pacific XXV Joint Regional Oceanographic Research Cruise held in 2022.

December 28th, 2022 Periodista Gabriela.Gutiérrez

The XXXI ERFEN Program Regional Scientific Committee Meeting (Protocol on the Program for the Regional Study of the El Niño Phenomenon in the Southeast Pacific – ERFEN) of the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (CPPS) was held in the city of Santiago de Chile between on December 13th and 15th, 2022.

The meeting was chaired by Juan Quintana Chilean Meteorological Directorate meteorologist ,and included delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, CPPS member countries. Representing our country, professionals from Chilean Meteorological Directorate, Chilean Navy Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service, Fisheries and Aquaculture Undersecretariat, and Fisheries Development Institute, made various presentations in the field of fisheries, meteorology, and local oceanographic conditions.

Oceanographer Hernán Reyes, Department of Oceanography and Environment, Oceanography Section’s head and of the XXV Joint Regional Oceanographic Research Cruise in the Southeast Pacific Regional Scientific Coordinator presented the joint cruise’s main results. IFOP professional began his report by indicating that the cruise work plan was prepared between May 24th and 26th, 2022 at the Coordinating Committee annual meeting presented the results, to finally highlight the cruise’s objective , which is to describe oceanographic and meteorological conditions off the western coast of South America recorded during the cruise period, analyze the effects of the macro-scale ocean-atmospheric scenario in the Tropical Pacific on regional dynamics during the cruise period, and develop a regional climate diagnosis and the forecast of the ENSO scenario in the region for the first quarter of 2023.

In the joint cruise, a total of 1,100 stations were carried out, ranging from the Colombian Pacific coast to the south of the Antofagasta area.

The main conclusions indicated that the joint cruise took place during the La Niña event that generated a weak cold situation along the entire South American coast, including Galapagos. In the Colombian area, conditions were close to normal. For its part, the surface wind was more intense in its southern component in the areas of Peru and Chile, although it decreased in intensity in October 2022. At a subsurface level, cold conditions reached at least up to 50 m in the northern area. and central Peru (Paita and Callao). In a biological aspect, phytoplankton decreased in the summer period of 2022 in the equatorial zone and off the coast of Peru, however, in the last quarter of 2022 it registered productive and habitual concentrations throughout the study area. The forecasts indicate that there is a probability of the propagation of the warm equatorial Kelvin Waves towards the coast of South America, the decrease in the intensity of the positive anomalies of the South Pacific Anticyclone (APS), the decrease of the negative anomalies of the surface temperature of the sea (ATSM) in the equatorial region and the South American coast, that is, to go from a cold condition, La Niña, to a normal condition as of March 2023.

Dr. Jaime Letelier, Oceanography and Environment Department head, highlighted the international importance of this joint cruise, in which four nations with adjacent maritime interests have come together since the late 1990s and share experiences and information under the wing of the CPPS, and which has allowed us to improve our knowledge of the great Humboldt Current System.

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