Flow path of the Antarctic Intermediate Water in the western equatorial South Pacific Ocean

Abstract

The flow path of the Antarctic Intermediate Water north and east of Papua New Guinea is investigated with use of hydrographic data collected in 1985–1986. The most original form of the Antarctic Intermediate Water in the study region is transported from the Solomon Sea to the equator by a narrow western boundary undercurrent (New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent) flowing northwestward through the Vitiaz Strait and along the north coast of Papua New Guinea. On the basis of this finding and previous studies by REID (1965, Johns Hopkins Oceanographic Studies, 2) and Reid and Mantyla (1978, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 8, 946-951), which indicated that the Antarctic Intermediate Water crosses the equator in the far western Pacific and the major part continues northward along the western boundary of the North Pacific, it is concluded that the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent plays an important role in transporting the Antarctic Intermediate Water from the South Pacific to the North Pacific.