An evaluation of the U. S. Navy NOGAPS surface wind product is made to establish its utility as an initial descriptor of the surface wind field in the tropical Atlantic during SEQUAL. In this preliminary study, NOGAPS synoptic fields are compared to synoptic ship reports, and to winds measured at three separate stations along the equator during SEQUAL I. At least within 20¿ of the equator the comparisons suggest that the mean monthly surface winds from NOGAPS almost always differ by less than 2 m/s from averages of surface wind observations, and can be less than 1 m/s. Similar comparisons are also found from daily mean winds derived from NOGAPS, along the equator near 30¿W. A comparison of NOGAPS monthly mean winds with 100-year climatology of merchant ship reports suggests that the major surface wind anomaly during SEQUAL I in the tropical Atlantic occurred in March and April 1983 along the equator west of 30¿W.