Northwest Atlantic Ocean’s SSTs

In the southwestern North Atlantic Ocean, the area between the 80F isotherm and the equator, and between 30W longitude and the western most land boundary, is compiled for each month from a world atlas of sea surface temperatures. Between February and March, the area starts to increase from 100 units until a maximum of over 1000 units is reached in August, after which the area decreases. One unit equals one latitude/longitude square. While increasing by swelling to the north, the temperature inside the area essentially does not increase, in spite of the self-evident fact that absorption of solar heat increases the whole time in the top 100 m of the water column. It is proposed that sea level rises by thermal expansion, starting at the equator, producing a northward slope in sea level which in turn drives warm water in the surface layer northward. This proposition is consistent with the heat balance required of the North Atlantic.