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Quasi‐stationary North Equatorial Undercurrent jets across the tropical North Pacific Ocean
Author(s) -
Qiu Bo,
Rudnick Daniel L.,
Chen Shuiming,
Kashino Yuji
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/grl.50394
Subject(s) - argo , geology , boundary current , oceanography , shoal , structural basin , climatology , ocean current , current (fluid) , geomorphology
Subthermocline circulation in the tropical North Pacific Ocean (2°N–30°N) is investigated using profiling float temperature‐salinity data from the International Argo and the Origins of the Kuroshio and Mindanao Current (OKMC) projects. Three well‐defined eastward jets are detected beneath the wind‐driven, westward flowing North Equatorial Current. Dubbed the North Equatorial Undercurrent (NEUC) jets, these subthermocline jets have a typical core velocity of 2–5 cms −1 and are spatially coherent from the western boundary to about 120°W across the North Pacific basin. Centered around 9°N, 13°N, and 18°N in the western basin, the NEUC jet cores tend to migrate northward by ∼4° in the eastern basin. Vertically, the cores of the southern, central, and northern NEUC jets reside on the 26.9, 27.2, and 27.3 σ θ surfaces, respectively, and they tend to shoal to lighter density surfaces, by about 0.2 σ θ , as the jets progress eastward.