HotSpot -- NOTES:  October 21, 1997

Although SSTs still appear high in the eastern Pacific,
off Guatemala and Panama, some bleaching has been
reported in this area associated with the continuing 
warm El Nino event.  

In the Caribbean, a period of warm water appeared
briefly north of Panama and off Columbia a few 
weeks ago.  Now, the potentially bleaching SSTs 
have developed to the east off Venezuela.  As in 
1996, we are expecting to receive reports of bleaching 
from the Dutch Antilles [Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao].

In the eastern hemisphere, this year has seen relatively 
few bleaching events develop.  One notable exception 
has been the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.  Conditions 
appear to have "worsened" again to the north over the 
central Red Sea during the past week, although we 
have received no confirmation of additional bleaching.

One additional region of the western tropical Pacific, 
between Sumatra and the Phillippines, has started to 
show signs of potential bleaching.  This region has 
been under the shroud of smoke from drought-related 
fires that makes observations of satellite SST a bit 
problematic   often our satellite measurements 
appear erroneously below what is correct during 
extreme aerosol events as this.

AES