A subset of data from an array of eight inverted echo sounders and a meteorological station deployed and maintained for 15 months in the equatorial Atlantic as part of the Seasonal Response of the Equatorial Atlantic program are analyzed to determine the variability of forced oscillations of the basin. The analysis is done to study both low- and high-frequency variability. At low frequencies the equatorial basin responds as a whole to the seasonally varying winds. The dominant signal is the annual cycle of the equatorial system as a composite of the response to the strong seasonal wind curl that is maximum in the western basin and the part of the zonal transfer to mass associated with the seasonal equatorial upwelling and downwelling system. Three bands of energy appear as dominant in the combined spectrum of the ocean and the atmosphere at higher frequencies: 20--30 days, 13--16 days, and the inertial gravity wave band. Each one of the bands is analyzed and discussed. Instability waves are detected on the echo sounder records. The waves have periods centered at 30.2 days and propagate westward with a wavelength of 1000 km and a phase speed of 0.35 m/s. The most energetic oscillation in the analyzed wind records is at periods centered around 14 days. The response of the ocean to this oscillation has a meridional distribution with maximum amplitude at 3 ¿N. The most significant oceanic oscillations in the inertial gravity band are centered at 5.2 and 3.5 days. From the study of their meridional structure it is concluded that those oscillations correspond to forced inertial gravity waves with meridional structures corresponding to the meridional numbers n=1 and n=3, respectively. ¿American Geophysical Union 1987