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Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current

The North Equatorial Subsurface Current (NESC) has recently been found to flow westward below the North Equatorial Countercurrent in the subsurface layer across the Pacific Ocean. The structure, water mass properties, and the dynamics of the NESC are studied using Argo profiles and geostrophic curre...

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Autores principales: Li, Xiang, Yang, Ya, Li, Rui, Zhang, Linlin, Yuan, Dongliang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7366692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32678136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68605-y
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author Li, Xiang
Yang, Ya
Li, Rui
Zhang, Linlin
Yuan, Dongliang
author_facet Li, Xiang
Yang, Ya
Li, Rui
Zhang, Linlin
Yuan, Dongliang
author_sort Li, Xiang
collection PubMed
description The North Equatorial Subsurface Current (NESC) has recently been found to flow westward below the North Equatorial Countercurrent in the subsurface layer across the Pacific Ocean. The structure, water mass properties, and the dynamics of the NESC are studied using Argo profiles and geostrophic currents, combined with moored current meter observations. The mean westward geostrophic currents of the NESC has been validated with moored current meter measurements at 4.7° N, 142° E in the far western tropical Pacific Ocean. Sizable seasonal-to-interannual variability of the NESC is indicated by the observations, with strong transports in boreal summer and during La Niña events, whereas weak transports in boreal winter and during El Niño events. The water masses of the NESC appear to be the mixture of the North and South Pacific intermediate waters, with the waters immediately below the thermocline closer to the North than to the South Pacific waters. A simulation using a linear continuously stratified model of ocean circulation suggests that the mean NESC is forced by wind curl through low baroclinic mode responses of the ocean.
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spelling pubmed-73666922020-07-17 Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current Li, Xiang Yang, Ya Li, Rui Zhang, Linlin Yuan, Dongliang Sci Rep Article The North Equatorial Subsurface Current (NESC) has recently been found to flow westward below the North Equatorial Countercurrent in the subsurface layer across the Pacific Ocean. The structure, water mass properties, and the dynamics of the NESC are studied using Argo profiles and geostrophic currents, combined with moored current meter observations. The mean westward geostrophic currents of the NESC has been validated with moored current meter measurements at 4.7° N, 142° E in the far western tropical Pacific Ocean. Sizable seasonal-to-interannual variability of the NESC is indicated by the observations, with strong transports in boreal summer and during La Niña events, whereas weak transports in boreal winter and during El Niño events. The water masses of the NESC appear to be the mixture of the North and South Pacific intermediate waters, with the waters immediately below the thermocline closer to the North than to the South Pacific waters. A simulation using a linear continuously stratified model of ocean circulation suggests that the mean NESC is forced by wind curl through low baroclinic mode responses of the ocean. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-07-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7366692/ /pubmed/32678136 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68605-y Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Li, Xiang
Yang, Ya
Li, Rui
Zhang, Linlin
Yuan, Dongliang
Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title_full Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title_fullStr Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title_full_unstemmed Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title_short Structure and dynamics of the Pacific North Equatorial Subsurface Current
title_sort structure and dynamics of the pacific north equatorial subsurface current
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7366692/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32678136
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-68605-y
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