Sea level response to the 1986–1987 El Niño‐Southern Oscillation Event in the western Pacific in the vicinity of Papua New Guinea

Abstract

Sea levels at the Papua New Guinea coast responded to the 1986–87 El Niño‐Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event much as would be expected for points on the inshore edge of a western boundary current driven by remote sea level disturbances. The first empirical orthogonal function of sea level in the region accounts for 60% of the variance, and shows a clear western boundary current signal. Sea level observations from tide gauges and estimates from adjacent expendable bathythermographs (XBTs) are in good agreement, so XBT data are used to supplement sea level results; specifically, we obtain an estimate of the western boundary current as a function of depth. The anomalous transport through Vitiaz Strait varied by about 15 Sv during the event, with possibly more following the eastern New Ireland coast. The western boundary current response appears to be located entirely equatorward of the inflow feeding it, as expected from linear theory. The boundary current followed the Trobriand Island ridge, rather than the main Papua New Guinea coastline, and appears to bifurcate along southern New Britain. A maximum response to the ENSO occurred south of New Ireland, where steric sea level appeared to vary by up to 45 cm due to the ENSO event; this may be an inertial feature.