Three very different views of the mean structure and variability of deep convection over the tropical east Indian and west Pacific Oceans, provided by three different reanalysis datasets for 1980—93, are highlighted. The datasets were generated at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, and the European Centre for Medium—Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Precipitation, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and 200—mb wind divergence fields from the three datasets are compared with one another and with satellite observations. Climatological means as well as interannual and intraseasonal (30—70 day) variability are discussed. For brevity the focus is restricted to northern winter (DJF). The internal consistency of the datasets is high, in the sense that the geographical extremes of rainfall, OLR, and divergence in each dataset correspond closely to one another. On the other hand, the external consistency,... Abstract Three very different views of the mean structure and variability of deep convection over the tropical east Indian and west Pacific Oceans, provided by three different reanalysis datasets for 1980—93, are highlighted. The datasets were generated at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres, and the European Centre for Medium—Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Precipitation, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), and 200—mb wind divergence fields from the three datasets are compared with one another and with satellite observations. Climatological means as well as interannual and intraseasonal (30—70 day) variability are discussed. For brevity the focus is restricted to northern winter (DJF). The internal consistency of the datasets is high, in the sense that the geographical extremes of rainfall, OLR, and divergence in each dataset correspond closely to one another. On the other hand, the external consistency,...