Three-Dimensional Structure of Tropical Cells in the Central Equatorial Pacific Ocean

Abstract

The shallow tropical cells (TCs) in the central equatorial Pacific Ocean are characterized by strong equatorial upwelling, near-surface wind-driven poleward flow, downwelling near the cold tongue boundaries, and equatorward flow below the surface mixed layer. Meridional and vertical velocity fluctuations associated with tropical instability waves (TIWs) in the central equatorial Pacific are much larger than those associated with the TCs and can modify the background circulation. OGCM experiments are used to simulate the spinup of the cells along 140°W in response to perturbed trade winds during various phases of the annual cycle. Equatorially modified versions of geostrophy and Ekman theory, and zonal filtering, are used to isolate the large-zonal-scale wind-driven response. Weakening of the trade winds in any season rapidly weakens the TCs, decreases the zonal current shear, and reduces the amplitude and propagation speed of the TIWs. In boreal fall and winter, when the background TCs and TIWs are seasonally strong, the ocean response is equatorially asymmetric (stronger flows north of the equator) and there is evidence of rectification by the modified TIWs onto the TCs. The linear equatorially modified Ekman solutions largely explain the meridional structure and temporal evolution of the anomalous ageostrophic response in the TCs. In fall and winter, however, deviations from the modified Ekman solutions were attributed to interactions with the background TCs and TIWs. An observing system able to quantify the relative contributions of these two processes to the seasonally varying equatorial asymmetry of background circulation would require fine meridional and temporal sampling.