Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami
MAY 2015
During May 2015, 384 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, 76% with
subsurface drogues attached for measuring mixed layer currents, were reporting
from the tropical Pacific. A number of drifters in the latitude band 3-6N
measured eastward anomalies of 30-50 cm/s across the basin, and a small number
of drifters near the equator also measured eastward anomalies of ~50 cm/s.

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.
|