Review on observational studies of western tropical Pacific Ocean circulation and climate

Hu, Dunxin; Wang, Fan; Sprintall, Janet; Wu, Lixin; Riser, Stephen C.; Cravatte, Sophie; Gordon, Arnold L.; Zhang, Linlin; Chen, Dake; Zou, Hui; Ando, Kenji; Wang, Jianbo; Lee, Jae-Hak; Hu, Shijian; Wang, Jing; Zhang, Dongxiao; Feng, Junqiao; Liu, Lingling; Villanoy, Cesar L.; Kaluwin, Chalapan; Qu, Tangdong; Ma, Yixin

doi:10.1007/s00343-020-0240-1

Cited by 31 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 209 publications

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“…2 of 17 northeastward rounding the Talaud Islands to join the North Equatorial Countercurrent (e.g., Chiang et al, 2015;Feng et al, 2018;Hu et al, 2020; Figure 1). Recent advances in satellite altimetry provide many advantages to the exploration of global surface circulations including the Pacific WBC region.…”

Section: Plain Language Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the Intensified Sub‐Thermocline Eddy on Strengthening the Mindanao Undercurrent in 2019

et al. 2022

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The Pacific western boundary currents (WBC) are of great scientific interest due to their key role in the global water mass transport and the heat budget of the western Pacific warm pool, which is essential to the evolution of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the anomalous climate events (e.g., Fine et al., 1994;Hu et al., 2015;Jin, 1997). The North Pacific WBC includes the Kuroshio Current (KC) and Mindanao Current (MC) at the upper layer, and the Luzon Undercurrent and Mindanao Undercurrent (MUC) below the thermocline. Upon approaching the western boundary, the broad westward-flowing North Equatorial Current bifurcates into poleward KC and equatorward MC (e.g., Ando et al., 2021;Qu & Lukas, 2003). Along the Philippine coast, the MC flows southward steadily with a maximum speed exceeding 100 cm s −1 near the surface (e.g., Lukas et al., 1991;Ren et al., 2018). At the southern tip of Mindanao Island, part of the MC turns westward entering the Sulawesi Sea to feed the Indonesian Throughflow, while the remainder flows southward and then turns

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Section: Plain Language Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the Intensified Sub‐Thermocline Eddy on Strengthening the Mindanao Undercurrent in 2019

et al. 2022

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“…The Pacific low latitude western boundary currents bring different water masses into the equatorial region from both hemispheres, and modulate the thermohaline structure in the western tropical Pacific, playing an important role in the maintenance and variation of the warm pool (e.g., D. Hu et al., 2015, 2020; Lukas et al., 1996). Pacific low latitude western boundary currents include the Mindanao Current (MC) and Mindanao Undercurrent (MUC) in the northern hemisphere, and the New Guinea Coastal Current (NGCC) and New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent (NGCUC) in the southern hemisphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal and Interannual Variability of the Currents off the New Guinea Coast From Mooring Measurements

Zhang

Wang

et al. 2020

JGR Oceans

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“…Fig. 5 shows a simplified subsurface return flow in plan but in reality, there are several (Hu et al, 2020). This includes the north and south Pacific countercurrents (Wyrtki, 1973;Wyrtki, 1975b) and a subsurface return current about which little is known (Li et al, 2020).…”

Section: Pacific Ocean Heat Engine Physical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Meridional return flows have a longer circulation time. Hu et al (2020) provide an extensive review of the warm pool and its links. During an El Niño event, winds turn east and the thermocline tilts the same way, heating the eastern Pacific and the atmosphere.…”

Section: Pacific Ocean Heat Engine Physical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Pacific Ocean heat engine

Jones

Ricketts

2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Historical warming forms a sequence of steady-state regimes punctuated by abrupt shifts. These changes are regulated by a heat engine spanning the tropical Pacific Ocean teleconnected to a broader climate network. The eastern-central Pacific maintains steady-state conditions, delivering heat to the Western Pacific warm pool. They form a heat pump with heat moving from the cold to the warm reservoir, sustained by kinetic energy. The two reservoirs exchange heat on a range of timescales, with oscillatory behaviour that intensifies under forcing. The heat engine is part of a network of oscillations and circulation interacting on a range of timescales. The process is self-regulating: steady-state regimes persist until they become unstable due to an over- or under-supply of heat for dissipation, shifting warmer or cooler to a new stable state. Pre-industrial climate was in free mode, characterised by a loosely-coupled ocean-atmosphere with limited circulation, moving into forced mode in the latter 20th century, characterised by tighter coupling and stronger circulation through the tropical Pacific with more active teleconnections globally. Continued forcing produces a stepladder-like pattern of warming. Most shifts coincide with phase changes in decadal oscillations, switching from slower to faster modes of dissipation. El Niño events combine with regime shifts to propagate heat from the oceans to land and from the tropics to higher latitudes. The most recent shift commenced in the warm pool in December 2012, ending the so-called hiatus (1997–2013), global mean surface temperatures warming abruptly by ~0.25 °C in 2014–15.

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Review on observational studies of western tropical Pacific Ocean circulation and climate

Cited by 31 publications

References 209 publications

Effect of the Intensified Sub‐Thermocline Eddy on Strengthening the Mindanao Undercurrent in 2019

Effect of the Intensified Sub‐Thermocline Eddy on Strengthening the Mindanao Undercurrent in 2019

Seasonal and Interannual Variability of the Currents off the New Guinea Coast From Mooring Measurements

The Pacific Ocean heat engine

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