A total of 8218 pelagic microplastic samples from the world’s oceans were synthesized to create a dataset composed of raw, calibrated, processed, and gridded data which are made available to the public. The raw microplastic abundance data were obtained by different research projects using surface net tows or continuous seawater intake. Fibrous microplastics were removed from the calibrated dataset. Microplastic abundance which fluctuates due to vertical mixing under different oceanic conditions was standardized. An optimum interpolation method was used to create the gridded data; in total, there were 24.4 trillion pieces (8.2 × 104 ~ 57.8 × 104 tons) of microplastics in the world’s upper oceans.

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Two mesoscale convective events in the baiu frontal zone (BFZ) were documented, based on intensive atmospheric soundings and oceanic castings in the East China Sea during May 2011, in addition to continuous surface meteorological observations, satellite products, and objective analyses. These events occurred while the BFZ was nearly stagnant and a mesolow was deepening in the zone. Near-surface southerlies associated with the low-level jet transported a warm, humid air mass from south of the BFZ. Enhanced evaporation, which was mainly attributable to the high sea surface temperature of the Kuroshio, augmented the moisture content of the air mass and helped maintain a convectively unstable stratification in the lower troposphere around the BFZ.

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