Introduction to special section: Coastal Advances in Shelf Transport

The Coastal Ocean Advances in Shelf Transport (COAST) program conducted an interdisciplinary study of coastal upwelling off central Oregon during summer 2001. Two intensive field efforts during May-June and August 2001 were coordinated with ocean circulation, ecosystem, and atmospheric modeling of the region. A primary goal was to contrast the coastal ocean response to wind forcing in a region of relatively simple alongshore bottom topography versus that associated with a substantial submarine bank. In this overview we provide background motivation for the COAST project and summarize the major research findings.