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Letter

Nature Geoscience 2, 761–765 (1 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo657

Sea surface cooling at the Equator by subsurface mixing in tropical instability waves

J. N. Moum , R.-C. Lien , A. Perlin , J. D. Nash , M. C. Gregg & P. J. Wiles

Changes in sea surface temperature of equatorial waters have critical effects on the large-scale atmospheric circulation. So far, large-scale, energetic tropical instability waves in equatorial waters have been thought to warm the sea surface through both meridional and zonal advection.