Examination of seasonal variation of the equatorial undercurrent termination in the Eastern Pacifi c diagnosed by ECCO2

Seasonal variations of the equatorial undercurrent(EUC) termination in the Eastern Pacific,and their mechanism were examined using the Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean,PhaseⅡ(ECCO2).The ECCO2 reproduced a weak and shallow eastward EUC east of the Galapagos Islands,with annual mean transport of half of EUC to the west of the Islands.The diagnosis of zonal momentum equation suggests that the zonal advection(nonlinear terms) drives the EUC beyond the Islands rather than the pressure gradient force.The EUC in the Far Eastern Pacific has the large st core velocity in boreal spring and the smallest one in boreal summer,and its volume transport exhibits two maxima in boreal spring and autumn.The seasonal variability of the EUC in the Eastern Pacific is dominated by the Kelvin and Rossby waves excited by the zonal winds anomalies in the central and Eastern Pacific that are associated with the seasonal relaxation or intensification of the trade wind.In the Far Eastern Pacific to the east of 120°W,the eastward propagation Kelvin waves play a dominate role in the seasonal cycle of the EUC,results in a semiannual fluctuation with double peaks in boreal spring and autumn.A construction of water mass budget suggests that approximately 24.1% of the EUC water east of 100°W has upwelled to the mixed layer by0.35 m/d.The estimated upwelling is stronge st during boreal autumn and weake st during boreal winter.It is also found that approximately 42.6% of the EUC turns westward to feed the south equatorial current(SEC),13.2% flows north of the equator,and 20.1% flows south of the equator,mainly contributing to Peru-Chile undercurrent.

The inversion of the Equatorial Undercurrent in the western tropical Pacific during 1986/1987 El Nino event

On the basis of time series measurements of winds, currents, temperature and salinity from equatorial current meter mooring and acoustic Doppler current profiler during the PRC/USA joint air-sea interaction studies in the western tropical Pacifc Ocean and sea level data provided by Prof. Wyrtki, analyses are made of the physical process and mechanism for the exceptionally inverse phenomenon (westward) of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) in the western tropical Pacific after entering the mature stage of 1986/1987 ENSO event, and the numerical simulation is also conducted by 'cross section' model. The results indicate that the inversion of the EUC is related to that of pressure gradient force near the equator under the influence of non-local permanent westerlies.

Persistent mixing bursts in the equatorial Pacific thermocline induced by persistent equatorial waves

A recent study by Liu et al.(2020)suggested that due to the saturation of equatorially trapped planetary waves with different dynamical types,temporal periods,meridional and baroclinic modes,complex layer structures of vertical velocity shear and hence turbulent mixing could frequently occur in the thermocline of the eastern equatorial Pacific.We investigated the occurrence of the interior turbulent mixing as indicated by shear instabilities,above the Equatorial Undercurrent(EUC)core at three equatorial sites along 140°W,170°W,and 165°E,respectively,based mainly on data from the Tropical Atmosphere and Ocean(TAO)mooring array.We found that turbulent mixing bursts persisted in the thermocline of all three sites.Specifically,the interior turbulent mixing layers(ITMLs)could occur in probability of approximately 68%,53%,and 48%at the three sites,respectively.The overall occurrence probability shows obvious and similar biannual variations at 140°W and 170°W,which is higher in boreal from late summer to winter and lower in spring.Vertically,the ITMLs are primarily located above the EUC core and prevail in deeper(shallower)layers from late summer to winter(spring).Most ITMLs(70%)lasted for hours to 3 days,and a few of them(15%)for more than 7 days.The thicknesses of ITMLs were concentrated between 15 and 55 m.At 165°E,the vertical distribution of ITML occurrence probability was different from that at 140°W and 170°W,as it did not show a preference for depths;the durations of ITMLs are short(also from hours to several days)and their thicknesses were between 5 and 25 m.These properties,particularly the high occurrence probability,and short durations demonstrated the persistence of thermocline mixing in the western to eastern equatorial Pacific thermocline and confirmed the generation mechanism by persistent equatorial waves as well.

The seasonal variation of undercurrent and temperature in the equatorial Pacific jointly derived from buoy measurement and assimilation analysis

Based on the TOGA-TAO buoy chain observed data in the equatorial Pacific and the assimilation analysis results from SODA(simple ocean data assimilation analysis), the role of the meridional cells in the subsurface of the tropical Pacific was discussed. It was found that, the seasonal varying direction of EUC(the quatorial Undercurrent)in the Peacific is westwards beginning from the eastern equatorial Pacific in the boreal spring. The meridional cell south of the equator plays important role on this seasonal change of EUC.On the other hand, although the varying direction is westwards, the seasonal variation of temperature in the same region gets its minimum values in the boreal autumn beginning from the eastern equatorial Pacific.The meridional cell north of the equator is most responsible for the seasonal temperature variation in the eastern equatorial Pacific while the meridional cell south of the equator mainly controls the seasonal temperature change in the central Pacific. It is probably true that the asymmetry by the equator is an important factor influencing the seasonal cycle of EUC and temperature in the tropical Pacific.

The North Equatorial Current/Undercurrent volume transport and its 40-day variability from a mooring array along 130°E

Traditionally,the estimated volume transport of the North Equatorial Current/Undercurrent(NEC/NEUC)is based on geostrophic equations and/or model results;however,direct observational evidence has not been acquired.We focused on one-year mooring observation data collected along 130°E and calculated the NEC/NEUC volume transport and explore its variability.Results show that the mean NEC and NEUC volume transports calculated from the mean velocity structures in the upper 950 m are 39 Sv and 6 Sv,respectively.Analysis of daily mooring data indicated that the volume transport of the NEC is approximately 52(±14)Sv and the volume transport of the NEUC is approximately 18(±13)Sv.A significant 40-day variation existed for the volume transport of both the NEC and NEUC.Overall,the intraseasonal variability of the NEC is vertically coherent with that of the NEUC.Observations indicated that the NEUC has three cores centered at approximately 8.5°N(~500 m),12.5°N(~700 m),and 17.5°N(~900 m),of which the middle core(12.5°N)is the strongest.The 40-day variability of the NEC and NEUC is related to the variability of local wind stress curl anomalies among various Madden-Julian Oscillation phases.When local wind field generates a negative(positive)wind stress curl anomaly,a weaker NEC(NEUC)and stronger NEUC(NEC)would occur.