Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami
NOVEMBER 2022
During November 2022, 197 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys
were reporting from the tropical Pacific. Eastward anomalies of ~25 cm/s were
measured by a number of drifters in the Nort Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC)
at 7-9N across the basin, indicating an acceleration of the easward NECC. Three
drifters measured westward anomalies of up to 50 cm/s at 120-130W, 1-3N,
possibly associated with an instability wave. Elsewhere, currents were close to
their climatological November values.

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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