DESCRIPTION:
Examples of Sea Surface Temperature are given for August 27, 2004 and
August 28, 2005. Differences in heat fluxes and wind patterns between the two years resulted in different SST values for the same periods, exhibiting the potential for substantial inter-annual variability in the Intra America seas.
Temperatures are clearly higher in 2005, a summer that will be remembered in the Caribbean as particularly hot, which was partially the reason for the observed intense coral bleaching events. The cool SST values in the central Gulf of Mexico in 8/28/2005 are associated with Hurricane Katrina, on its way for the disastrous landfall in New Orleans. The cool SST values near the Venezuelan coast in 8/27/2004 are associated with wind driven coastal upwelling.
CONTACT:
Villy Kourafalou — vkourafalou@rsmas.miami.edu
George Halliwell — ghalliwell@rsmas.miami.edu
