>Animations of AVISO Tropical Pacific Sea Level and SST Anomaly Maps

>UPDATE December 6, 2009: Keep in mind when watching the videos that the field of view captures only small portions of the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. The vast majority is the tropical Pacific Ocean. The images stretch from 100E to 70W, or 190 degrees longitude, or more than half way around the equator. Note that there is another update at the bottom of the page, too.
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The AVISO website provides monthly maps of tropical Pacific Sea Level and Sea Surface Temperature anomalies from January 1993 to present (SLA maps start in November 1992):
http://bulletin.aviso.oceanobs.com/html/produits/indic/enso/welcome_uk.php3

I’ve combined the Sea Level and SST anomaly maps, with the Sea Level Anomalies in the upper cell. The example below (April 1998) shows the start of the Rossby wave that returns warm waters from the eastern to the western Tropical Pacific.

http://i50.tinypic.com/dccy2w.png
Example of Combined AVISO Sea Level and SST Anomaly Maps

And then I animated them, creating two versions, and posted them on YouTube. The difference is the speed, the number of frames per second. I prefer to watch them full screen and in “High Quality”. The slow version:

YouTube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PoC5qVgovE

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And the faster version:

YouTube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e7S_WBknUY

Refer to my post…
“More Detail On The Multiyear Aftereffects Of ENSO – Part 2 – La Nina Events Recharge The Heat Released By El Nino Events AND…
…During Major Traditional ENSO Events, Warm Water Is Redistributed Via Ocean Currents”

…for a further discussion on the impacts of ENSO on the Tropical Pacific.

UPDATE December 6, 2009: For those trying to determine why I picked the above April 1998 maps as an example, I’ve created the following .gif animation.

http://i46.tinypic.com/i4e5qs.gif