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

NOVEMBER 2013

During November 2013, 283 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys, 83% with subsurface drogues attached for measuring mixed layer currents, were reporting from the tropical Pacific. The drifters indicated that the major currents were close to their climatological November strengths. Very strong eastward anomalies were measured by two drifters south of the equator at 100-110W, but this may be associated with a mesoscale feature rather than a larger-scale anomaly as no drogued drifters sampled this latitude band further west.

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.