FY 1980

New precipitation maps for the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans

Reed, R.K., and W.P. Elliott

J. Geophys. Res., 84(C12), 7839–7846, doi: 10.1029/JC084iC12p07839 (1979)

Ocean precipitation intensity values derived in a previous study were combined with precipitation frequency data in the recently revised marine climatic atlases to prepare new annual and seasonal precipitations maps for the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. The greatest precipitation over both oceans occurs in the eastern and central tropical regions. A distinct minimum is present across both oceans in the subtropical regions, being most marked along the eastern margins. Secondary maxima are present over the northern regions, where considerable snow falls in winter. The principal seasonal changes are an increase in size and northward migration of the subtropical dry zone from winter to summer as well as reduced magnitude and gradients of precipitation to the north in summer. The tropical Pacific shows a remarkably stable distribution during the year, but the zone of maximum rainfall in the tropical Atlantic undergoes considerable variation in location. The new maps show generally less precipitation in extratropical regions than earlier ones, although in the tropics they give values between those of the widely varying previous maps.