Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys, July 1996

Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
M.S. Swenson / AOML, Miami

At the end of July there were 272 satellite-tracked drifting buoys, of which 71% had subsurface drogues intact, in operation for the WOCE/CLIVAR Surface Velocity Program in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The SEC is evident across the basin south of about 3N. The NEC is evident across the basin. The NECC is well established and there is strong evidence of tropical instability wave activity east of about 130W. Cold SST anomalies (1C) at the end of the month are found north of the equator and south and east of 110W. SST anomalies between 130W-110W tend to be positive (1C) while SST anomalies east of 100W and north of the equator tend to be cool (1C). SST anomalies west of 170E are positive (1C).

Movements of drifting buoys in the tropical Pacific Ocean during July 1996. The linear segments of each trajectory represent a two week displacement. Red (solid) paths show buoys drogued to 15-m depth; blue (dotted) paths show undrogued buoys.