Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami
JANUARY 2012
During January 2012, 296 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, 52% with subsurface drogues attached for measuring mixed layer currents, were reporting from the tropical Pacific. Westward anomalies of O(10 cm/s) were observed across the basin, with stronger westward anomalies of 20-30 cm/s in the northern SEC and southern NEC. Many drifters north of 10N and west of the dateline measured SSTs warmer than normal by 0.5-3.0C, as seen in December 2011, while drifters to the south and east measured SSTs at or slightly cooler (0-1.5C) than climatological January values. Cold anomalies were most prevalent between 20S to 20N, east of the dateline.

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.
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