The interannual variability of the tropical Atlantic ocean–atmosphere system is examined using 50 years of sea‐surface temperature (SST) and re‐analysis data, and satellite data when available. A singular value decomposition analysis of 12‐ to 72‐month bandpass filtered SST and zonal wind stress reveals two dominant modes of interannual variability. The SST anomalies are confined to the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) in the fir...

Two dominant ocean–atmosphere modes of variability on interannual timescales were defined in part I of this work, namely, the North Tropical Atlantic (NTA) and South Tropical Atlantic (STA) modes. In this paper we focus on the STA mode that covers the equatorial and sub‐tropical South Atlantic. We show that STA events occurring in conjunction with ENSO have a preference for the southern summer season and seem to be forced by a...

Upwelling predicted by a reduced‐gravity model is compared with remotely sensed primary productivity data through the tropical Atlantic and Pacific. The model upper layer thickness, an indicator of vertical motion, is correlated with primary productivity. We suggest that the Atlantic basin is more efficient than the Pacific in its production for the same degree of upwelling. This is a characteristic of the tropical Pacific eco...