摘要：We examine profiling float-based measurements of rainfall, wind speed, and near-surface salinity in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean collected during the SPURS-2 field program. The data show large-scale meridional and zonal variability in these quantities, with considerable variability near the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The eastern tropical Pacific data show strong, intermittent, near-surface, low-salinity events driven by rainfall along the ITCZ that generally do not occur elsewhere in the tropical Pacific. The float salinity data suggest that low-salinity surface water can be entrained 50 m or more into the mixed layer from mid-summer to early in the following calendar year, although the annual periods of strong wind and high precipitation do not coincide. Many of the low-salinity anomalies observed during the SPURS-2 program appear to result from strong, transient storms generated by atmospheric convection along the ITCZ that move across the region.
