MIXED-LAYER CIRCULATION DURING EQPAC AND SOME THERMOCHEMICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EQUATORIAL COLD-TONGUE

Citation
Dv. Hansen et Ms. Swenson, MIXED-LAYER CIRCULATION DURING EQPAC AND SOME THERMOCHEMICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE EQUATORIAL COLD-TONGUE, Deep-sea research. Part 2. Topical studies in oceanography, 43(4-6), 1996, pp. 707
Citations number
31
Categorie Soggetti
Oceanografhy
ISSN journal
09670645
Volume
43
Issue
4-6
Year of publication
1996
Database
ISI
SICI code
0967-0645(1996)43:4-6<707:MCDEAS>2.0.ZU;2-N
Abstract
Surface currents inferred from satellite-tracked drifting buoys were u sed to develop a chronology of surface currents in the central Pacific for the year encompassing the EqPac field program. Salient features o f the chronology are the early months of the program witnessed anomalo us eastward current surges near the equator within the moderate El Nin o event, followed by a period of anomalously strong westward flow near the equator and eastward flow in the North Equatorial Countercurrent that led. in mid-summer, to an eruption of tropical instability waves that continued until the end of the field program. None of these event s was particularly unusual, but they were departures from climatology that influence the interpretation of the biochemical measurements made for EqPac. Results from a semi-quantitative conceptual model indicate that tropical instability waves have more important long-term, as wel l as short-term, consequences for thermochemical properties of the col d tongue than previously recognized. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Scien ce Ltd.