Western Pacific international meeting and workshop on Toga Coare : proceedings
- Authors
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1989
- Source
- Horizon / Pleins textes
- Keywords
- Language
- English
- License
- Unknown
- External links
Abstract
Distribution of temperature, salinity and dynamic topography, using data from eleven SURTROPAC, three PROPPAC and three US/PRC cruises between january 1989, is examined. Long term changes of dynamic topography give a new view of oceanic variability in the western equatorial Pacific ocean : a) after the 1982-1983 El Nino event a drastic change occurs between 1984 and 1985 with a sudden accumulation of warm waters, b) a steady and continuous loss of heat appears since 1985 with a shallowing of the thermocline culminating in 1987 with the associated El Nino episode. Continuous temperature data from Atlas moorings confirm the slow tendancy between 1985 and 1987 giving a new insight of the el Nino scenario in the western Pacific. These cruises also give a more realistic temperature/salinity relationship along 165°E and have therefore made it possible to determine the accuracy of dynamic topography obtained by the Atlas temperature data set and Levitus T/S climatology.