Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, CIMAS/AOML, Miami
Top:Movements of drifting buoys in the tropical Pacific Ocean during may04.
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 black.
Middle: Monthly mean currents calculated from all buoys 1993-2002 (gray),
and currents measured by the drogued buoys this month (black) smoothed by an
optimal filter.
Bottom: Anomalies from the climatological monthly mean currents for this month.