South Pacific Water Intrusion Into the Sub-Thermocline Makassar Strait in the Winter of 2016–2017 Following a Super El Niño

Abstract

The Makassar Strait throughflow (MST) is the major component of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), transferring Pacific water into the Indian Ocean. In our previous study, we identified a new zonal pathway, a. k.a. the North Equatorial Subsurface Current (NESC), which carried equatorial water into the MST sub-thermocline (>300 m) in the summer 2016 following the 2015/16 El Niño. We now show continued strong southward MST in the sub-thermocline during the winter of 2016–2017, with salinity higher than that in the summer 2016, due to direct South Pacific water intrusion into the Sulawesi Sea. The origin of the intrusion is identified from the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent (NGCUC) and from an anomalous westward flow along 3°N in the western equatorial Pacific. The identified interannual variability of the western Pacific Ocean circulation is particularly strong in the winter following super El Niño events.