THE EFFECT OF TROPICAL INSTABILITY WAVES ON CO2 SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONSALONG THE EQUATOR IN THE EASTERN EQUATORIAL PACIFIC DURING THE 1992 ENSO EVENT

Tropical instability waves have been shown to have a major impact on t he variability of temperature and nutrients along the equatorial wave guide. In order to assess the impact of these features on carbon speci es distributions during an ENSO event, sea surface temperature, salini ty, sigma-t, nitrate, CO2 fugacity, total inorganic carbon, total alka linity, and pH along the equator were measured from 130-degrees-W to 1 00-degrees-W during 8-15 May 1992. Concurrent moored measurements of s urface currents and temperature were also made at 0-degrees, 110-degre es-W. Results indicate that tropical instability waves, with periods o f 15 to 20 days and zonal wavelengths of 700-800 km, controlled the ob served spatial variability of the CO2 species, nitrate and hydrographi c parameters at the equator.