Specific features of the field of surface temperature in the Tropical Atlantic

On the basis of generalization of the data of many-year hydrological observations and the data of meteorological satellites accumulated in recent years, we characterize some specific features of the surface temperature in the Tropical Atlantic. The influence of solar radiation, local heat balance, and the advective and diffusion heat transfer on the temperature of the water surface is analyzed. The mechanism of formation of the thermohalocline and local sites of elevated temperature near the estuaries of large rivers (such as the Amazon, Orinoco, Mississippi, Congo, and Niger) is described. We also characterize the formation of the seasonal variability of the near-equatorial temperature maximum, equatorial temperature minimum, and equatorial divergence rate. __________ Translated from Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 6, pp. 28–38, November–December, 2007.