Assessment of interannual variation (1979-1986) in pigment concentrations in the tropical Pacific using the CZCS

Abstract

Abstract Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) pigment concentrations, sea surface temperature, and sea level from 1979 through to mid-1986 in the tropical Pacific are examined. The relationships among surface pigment concentration, sea surface temperature and sea level during the El Ni~o/Southern Oscillation event of 1982-83 exhibit marked zonal variations. Sea level in the western and central Pacific decreased dramatically during the autumn of 1982 with both north-to-south and west-to-east time lags and corresponding increases in pigment concentrations. There was no apparent relationship between sea surface temperature and pigment in the Warm Pool. In contrast, sea surface temperature increases in the eastern Pacific along the Peruvian coast and the Galapagos Islands coincided with pronounced increases in sea level and decreases in surface pigment concentrations. Across the entire basin, pigment variability was linked to sea level height, and, presumably, thermocline depth with an inverse relationship between sea level and pigment occurring on both sides of the Pacific.