Tropical Pacific Drifting Buoys
Rick Lumpkin / Mayra Pazos, AOML, Miami
JULY 2010
During July 2010, 468 satellite-tracked surface drifting buoys,
69% with subsurface drogues attached for measuring mixed layer currents,
were reporting from the tropical Pacific. As seen in June, dramatic 50 cm/s
westward anomalies were measured by many near-equatorial drifters at longitudes
across the basin. This June-July pattern is an intensification of the westward
anomalies seen since March. Equatorial drifters in the center of the basin
measured cold SST anomalies of -1 to -3C. Off-equatorial drifters measured SSTs
at or slightly above normal July values in the western half of the basin, and at
or slightly below normal in the eastern half.
![](figa1.1.gif)
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 1993-2002 (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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