The tropical Atlantic ocean plays a key role for climate variability in sensitive regions of the surrounding continents: Previous studies suggest that inter-annual variability of sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Atlantic impacts rainfall variability over northeast Brazil and the coastal regions surrounding the Gulf of Guinea (Chang et al. 2006; Kushnir et al. 2006; Brandt et al. ...

The research vessel-based Conductivity Temperature Depth profiler (CTD) provides underwater measurements of the bulk sea surface temperature (SST) at the depths of shallower than 5 m. The CTD observations of the seas around Taiwan provide useful data for comparison with SST of MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers) aboard Aqua and Terra satellites archived by JAXA (Japan Aerospa...

1767 NOVEMBER 2007 AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY | R ecent literature has been refocusing on the association between tropical North Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) and Atlantic hurricane activity. Emanuel (2005) demonstrated this relationship using a power dissipation index (PDI), which depends on storm intensity and the lifetime of each storm over each hurricane season. Emanuel’...

A 50-year coupled atmosphere-ocean model integration is used to study sea surface temperature (SST) and mixed layer depth (h), and the processes which influence them. The model consists of an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to an ocean mixed layer model in ice-free regions. The midlatitude SST variability is simulated fairly well, although the maximum variance is underestimated an...

The net heat flux into the northern Indian Ocean is between 75 and 100 W m22 during the boreal spring and early summer but only 10–20 W m22 in the western Pacific during the entire year. The differences in the net surface heat fluxes arise from the radiation shielding by deep convective clouds over the western Pacific and the near absence of clouds over the northern Indian Ocean during spring. ...

Global average sea surface temperature (SST) from 40øS to 60øN fluctuates ñ0.3øC on interannual period scales, with global warming (cooling) during E1 Nifio (La Nifia). About 90% of the global warming during E1 Nifio occurs in the tropical global ocean from 20øS to 20øN, half because of large SST anomalies in the tropical Pacific associated with E1 Nifio and the other half because of warm SST a...

The turbulent air-sea heat flux feedback (α, in W m−2 K−1) is a major 7 contributor to setting the damping timescale of sea surface temperature (SST) 8 anomalies. In this study we compare the spatial distribution and magnitude of 9 α in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean, as estimated from the ERA10 Interim reanalysis dataset. The comparison is rationalized in terms of an upper 11 bound ...

Velocity data from an array of acoustic Doppler current profilers moored about 0 , 140 W from May 1990 through June 1991 during the Tropical Instability Wave Experiment are used in conjunction with Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean array data and a blended sea surface temperature (SST) product to study the processes that control SST variations. The horizontal velocity data allow us to calculate the ver...

Subsurface ocean temperature indices are developed to identify two distinct types of tropical Pacific warming (El Niño) and cooling (La Niña) events: the Eastern-Pacific (EP) type and the Central-Pacific (CP) type. Ocean temperature anomalies in the upper 100 m are averaged over the eastern (80°W–90°W, 5°S–5°N) and central (160°E–150°W, 5°S–5°N) equatorial Pacific to construct the EP and CP sub...