Marin Frédéric auteur aut IRD Caniaux G. auteur aut IRD Bourlès Bernard auteur aut IRD Giordani H. auteur aut IRD Gouriou Yves auteur aut IRD Key E. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf born digital access A comparison of June 2005 and June 2006 sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Atlantic exhibits large variability in the properties of the equatorial cold tongue, with far colder temperatures in 2005 than in 2006. This difference is found to result mainly from a time shift in the development of the cold tongue between the two years. Easterlies were observed to be stronger in the western tropical Atlantic in April-May 2005 than in April-May 2006, and these winds favorably preconditioned oceanic subsurface conditions in the eastern Atlantic. However, it is also shown that a stronger than usual intraseasonal intensification of the southeastern trades was responsible for the rapid and early intense cooling of the sea surface temperatures in mid-May 2005 over a broad region extending from 20 degrees W to the African coast and from 6 degrees S to the equator. This particular event underscores the ability of local intraseasonal wind stress variability in the Gulf of Guinea to initiate the cold tongue season and thus to dramatically impact the SST in the eastern equatorial Atlantic. Such intraseasonal wind intensifications are of potential importance for year-to-year variability in the onset of the African monsoon. specialized ATLANTIQUE 032 39 6 1416-1431 2009 0022-3670 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010085010 10.1175/2008jpo4030.1 0022-3670 [F B010085010] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010085010 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/intranet/publi/2022-05/010085010.pdf Accès réservé (Intranet de l'IRD) IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2009-09-01 2022-05-24 fdi:010085010 fre