Katherine Zaba

Director of Glider Programs

MRV Systems, LLC

About

I am an observational physical oceanographer. My research interests include: oceanic boundary currents, El Niño-Southern Oscillation, marine heatwaves, physical-biological interations, and autonomous underwater gliders. Most of my research has been regionally focused on the California Current System, with contributions to the California Underwater Glider Network (CUGN), the California State Estimate (CASE), and the California Current Ecosystem Long-Term Ecological Research (CCE-LTER) program.

Publications

Zaba, K. D., P. J. S. Franks, M. D. Ohman (2021), The California Undercurrent as a source of upwelled waters in a coastal filament. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 126, e2020JC016602. doi:10.1029/2020JC016602.

Zaba, K. D., D. L. Rudnick, B. D. Cornuelle, G. Gopalakrishnan, M. R. Mazloff (2020), Volume and heat budgets in the coastal California Current System: Means, Annual Cycles, and Interannual Anomalies of 2014-16. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 50, 1435–1453. doi:10.1175/JPO-D-19-0271.1.

Zaba, K. D., D. L. Rudnick, B. D. Cornuelle, G. Gopalakrishnan, M. R. Mazloff (2018), Annual and interannual variability in the California Current System: Comparison of an ocean state estimate with a network of underwater gliders. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 48, 2965–2988. doi:10.1175/JPO-D-18-0037.1.

Rudnick, D. L., K. D. Zaba, R. E. Todd, and R. E. Davis (2017), A climatology of the California Current System from a network of underwater gliders. Progress in Oceanography, 154, 64-106. doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2017.03.002.

Jacox, M. G., E. L. Hazen, K. D. Zaba, D. L. Rudnick, C. A. Edwards, A. M. Moore, and S. J. Bograd (2016), Impacts of the 2015-2016 El Nino on the California Current System: Early assessment and comparison to past events. Geophysical Research Letters, 43, 7072-7080. doi:10.1002/2016GL069716.

Zaba, K. D., and D. L. Rudnick (2016), The 2014-2015 warming anomaly in the Southern California Current System observed by underwater gliders. Geophysical Research Letters, 43, 1241-1248. doi:10.1002/2015GL067550.

Education (CV)

Ph.D. in Oceanography, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2018

B.S. in Applied Mathematics, University of California at Los Angeles, 2010

B.S. in Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Environmental Sciences, University of California at Los Angeles, 2010