Tropical Highlights

  Table of Atmospheric Indices  (Table 1)

  Table of Oceanic Indices  (Table 2)

  Time Series

  Time-Longitude Sections

  Mean & Anomaly Fields

  Appendix 1: Outside Contributions

• Tropical Drifting Buoys  A1.1
  
• Pacific Wind stress  A1.2
  
• Surface Currents (a)  A1.3
  
• Surface Currents (b)  A1.4
  
  

Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys

Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami

AUGUST 2011

During August 2011, 353 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, 57% with subsurface drogues attached for measuring mixed layer currents, were reporting from the tropical Pacific. Few drifters measured near-equatorial currents in the western half of the basin. Very strong northward anomalies measured by three near-equatorial drifters at 129W are likely associated with a tropical instability wave. Between 140W and the date line, strong equatorial westward anomalies of O(40 cm/s) were measured by a number of drifters between the equator and 5S. Over much of the basin the westward SEC and NEC were stronger than normal, with westward anomalies of 5-15 cm/s.

FIGURE A1.1 a) Top: Movements of drifting buoys in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The linear segments of each trajectory represent a one week displacement. Trajectories of buoys which have lost their subsurface drogues are gray; those with drogues are blue. b) Middle: Monthly mean currents calculated from all buoys 1993-2010 (gray), and currents measured by the drogued buoys this month (black) smoothed by an optimal filter. c) Bottom: Anomalies from the climatological monthly mean currents for this month.