Tropical Highlights

  Table of Atmospheric Indices  (Table 1)

  Table of Oceanic Indices  (Table 2)

  Time Series

  Time-Longitude Sections

  Mean & Anomaly Fields

  Appendix 1: Outside Contributions

• Tropical Drifting Buoys  A1.1
  
• Pacific Wind stress  A1.2
  
• Surface Currents (a)  A1.3
  
• Surface Currents (b)  A1.4
  
  

Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys

Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami

FEBRUARY 2024

During February 2024, 216 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys were reporting from the tropical Pacific. Several drifters in the latitude band of the North Equatorial Countercurrent indicated that the strong eastward anomalies present since October 2023 had reversed to ~20 cm/s westward from its climatological February peak strength of 30 cm/s eastward. A small number of drifters at 100-120W, 5S indicated very strong (~80 cm/s) westward anomalies, but it was unclear if this was a larger-scale feature or a more localized wave or eddy.

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.