Trends of the Pathways and Intensities of Surface Equatorial Current System in the North Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Abstract An ensemble of ocean reanalysis products is utilized to quantify the long-term tendencies of pathways and along-pathway transports of the three surface equatorial currents (North Equatorial Current, North Equatorial Countercurrent, and northern branch of the South Equatorial Current) in the North Pacific Ocean during the period of the 1900s–2000s. This study uses 12 ocean reanalysis products in the ensemble for the period after the 1960s, while only 2 Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA) products are taken into consideration for the period prior to 1960s. The analyses indicate that the three currents in the western (eastern) Pacific Ocean have more southern (northern) mean central positions and tend to move southward (northward) over the past 100 years. All three currents have weakening tendencies, with the exception of the North Equatorial Current having intensified in the western Pacific Ocean. The Sverdrup dynamics, which directly relates the wind-driven circulation in the interior ocean to wind stress curl and Earth rotation, can be applied to simply address the long-term changes of intensities and pathways of the three surface currents in the tropical North Pacific Ocean.