Equatorial Currents

The eastern equatorial Atlantic is characterized by a "cold tongue" of water which seasonally extends westward from Africa along the equator to the central Atlantic. Several PhOD research activities are focused on understanding how the currents in the cold tongue region are modified by locally forced events (anomalous winds, warming/cooling), and by remotely-forced equatorial waves.

Projects

Evaluation of the Three-Dimensional Structure of Velocity in the Central Equatorial Atlantic

Renellys Perez, Rick Lumpkin, Greg Foltz, and Verena Hormann

In this project, MERCATOR global ocean analyses are used in conjunction with measurements obtained from Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) moorings, drifters, and satellites, to study the upper-ocean circulation in the central equatorial Atlantic during the past decade. Go