HR: 1340h
AN: A43B-0042    [Abstracts]
TI: Winds, Nonlinearity, and the North Equatorial Countercurrent
AU: * Armbruster, J
EM: jeffa@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Carton, J A
EM: carton@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AU: Wang, J
EM: jiande.wang@noaa.gov
AF: National Centers for Environmental Prediction, 5200 Auth Road, Camp Springs, md 20746 United States
AU: Behringer, D
EM: david.behringer@noaa.gov
AF: National Centers for Environmental Prediction, 5200 Auth Road, Camp Springs, md 20746 United States
AU: Chepurin, G
EM: chepurin@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 United States
AB: The currents of the northern tropical Atlantic are dominated by the seasonal North Equatorial Countercurrent, whose strength and position plays an important role in regulating the tongue of cool surface temperatures on and south of the equator. Here we examine the year-to-year variability of this current based on a combination of satellite and in situ observations October 1992 - May 2004. The causes of this variability are examined using a hierarchy of dynamical models driven by scatterometer wind stress products and will be contrasted with a similar reconstruction of currents in the tropical Pacific.
DE: 4215 Climate and interannual variability (3309)
DE: 4500 OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL
DE: 4504 Air/sea interactions (0312)
DE: 4512 Currents
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting