Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami
DECEMBER 2021
During December 2021, 196 satellite-tracked surface drifting
buoys were reporting from the tropical Pacific. Eastward
anomalies of ~30 cm/s were seen by several drifters in the
near-equatorial band at 120W, possibly associated with a
Tropical Instability Wave.

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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