On the processes that control seasonal variations of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean

What matters most seasonally are two local processes: seasonal upwelling associated with a divergence of surface currents, and the seasonal modulation of mixing processes, by heat fluxes, that control to what extent upwelling induced by the mean winds influences sea surface temperatures. These results shed light on the different requirements that coupled ocean-atmosphere models should meet if they are to reproduce both seasonal and interannual variability. The results also make a case for measurements, along a meridian in the eastern tropical Pacific, that focus on the relations between sea surface temperature changes, heat flux variations and mixing processes. -from Authors