TIME-SPACE SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE VARIABILITY, IN THE CARIBEAN SEA

Abstract

Twenty-one years of infrared satellite images of the Caribbean Sea were used from January 1983 to December 2002 to describe the sea surface temperature variability. The images used were obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov). The images have a temporal resolution of 8 days and an approximate spatial resolution of 18 x 18 km. By means of a harmonic analysis of annual, semi-annual, tertiary and quarterly signal of the images, we obtained modeled series of sea surface temperature to characterize the climatic variability by region in the Caribbean Sea, the differences between the modeled and the original series define interannual anomalies related mainly to events such as El Niño and La Niña, among others. These events show teleconnection with the Caribbean Sea in a lag of 4 to 5 months. This study establishes for the first time the climatic behavior of the surface temperature of the Caribbean Sea, as well as its response to global events. The model series explain ~ 67% of the variability of the original series indicating that 33% depends on interannual phenomena.

Keywords

• Caribean Sea
• El Niño
• La Niña
• Climatic Variability