FY 2003

A comparison of kinematic evidence for tropical cells in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

Molinari, R.L., S. Bauer, D. Snowden, G.C. Johnson, B. Bourles, Y. Gouriou, and H. Mercier

In Interhemispheric Water Exchange in the Atlantic Ocean, G. Goni and P. Malanotte-Rizzoli (eds.), Elsevier, Oxford, 269–286 (2003)

Kinematic evidence for the existence of Tropical Cells (TC) in the Atlantic Ocean is offered. Mean sections of meridional velocity, its horizontal divergence and vertical velocity are estimated from twelve available sections centered at about 35°W. Of the twelve sections, six were occupied in March and April, thus there is a boreal spring bias to the observations. Equatorial upwelling and off-equatorial downwelling, between 3°N and 6°N, represent the southern and northern boundaries of a northern hemisphere TC. Uncertainties for the estimates of average quantities are large. However, favorable comparisons with observational representations of Pacific TC