Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys, March 1997

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

At the end of March, the number of drifting buoys reporting from the tropical Pacific had declined to 164, of which 77% had confirmed drogues. Coverage is particularly sparse over the near-equatorial regions of the east and central Pacific. There is some evidence of a westerly wind burst response near 170E. SST anomalies at the end of the month are generally small (< 0.5C) in the equatorial band.

Movements of drifting buoys in the tropical Pacific Ocean during March 1997. The linear segments of each trajectory represent a two week displacement. Red paths show buoys drogued to 15-m depth; blue paths show undrogued buoys.