The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season featured 17 named storms. The season officially began on 20 May 2019 with the formation of Subtropical Storm Andrea and ended on 24 November 2019 with the dissipation of Tropical Storm Sebastien.

The evolution of the ocean response to the 2019 Atlantic tropical cyclones is evaluated using data from the NASA Multi-Scale Ultra-High Resolution (MUR) sea surface temperature (SST) and NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) sea surface salinity (SSS). The ocean response is clearly observed along the tracks of the 2019 Atlantic tropical cyclones with waters approximately 2°C cooler from normal along the hurricane track that persisted for several days. It is common to observe trails of cooler water, or cold wakes, along hurricane tracks as a result of wind-induced mixing and turbulence that brings cold waters at depth to the surface. Salinity freshening due to precipitation can also be seen along the hurricane tracks, as well as increased salinity from wind stress-generated vertical mixing. The ocean salinity response to hurricanes is a combination of two competing effects: 1) salinity freshening due to enhanced precipitation and 2) salinity increase due to wind stress-generated vertical mixing, wherein increased salinity from a mid-level maximum is brought to the surface.

Dataset NameProcessing
Level
Start/StopFormatSpatial ResolutionTemporal
Resolution
GHRSST Level 4 MUR Global Foundation Sea Surface Temperature Analysis (v4.1)4 to PresentNETCDF-40.01 Decimal Degrees x 0.01 Decimal DegreesHourly - < Daily
RSS SMAP Level 3 Sea Surface Salinity Standard Mapped Image 8-Day Running Mean V4.0 Validated Dataset3 to PresentNETCDF-40.25 Decimal Degrees x 0.25 Decimal DegreesWeekly - < Monthly