A case study of the tropical Hot Event in November 2006 (HE0611) using a geostationary meteorological satellite and the TAO/TRITON mooring array

Qin et al. have found Hot Events (HE), which are short-term (about 20 days) large-scale (about 15,000,000 km²) regions with very high Sea Surface Temperatures (SST > 30°C). Following their definition, an HE was identified in the tropical western Pacific in November 2006, which is named HE0611. A case study of HE is conducted by using the advanced satellite products and in-situ measurements from the TAO/TRITON mooring array. Two parts (HE0611-East and -West) with very high SST connected to form HE0611. SST in HE0611-West increases quickly with large diurnal SST variations, which are caused by large solar radiation and suppressed latent heat loss. The increase of the mixed-layer heat content is clearly accounted for the accumulated heat gain through the air-sea interaction. The formation mechanism of HE0611-East is completely different; its very high SST is supported by a subsurface high SST anomaly associated with the El Niño. Two phenomena similar to HE0611 were observed in November of the El Niño years of 1994 and 2002.