Atlas of the tropical Pacific ocean annual cycle

ABSTRACT

Data for this Tropical Pacific Ocean Atlas comes from monthly gridded analyses of temperature and current data over a ten year (1983-1992)period generated by an ocean-data assimilation system at the National Meteorological Center, Washington D.C. This atlas showsmaps of the long-term mean, monthly standar deviation, mean anual cycle for suface and subsurface quanties of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The main focus of this atlas is subsurface variations, but the surface wind-stress curl and sea-surface temperature are also included for completeness. The main variables considered here are subsurface temperature, currents, and the depth of the 20ºC isotherm during the course of the annual cycle are also shown. Data are shown on level surfaces at selected depths, depth integrated, and on meridional and zonal cross sections (AU)