Intraseasonal Eddies in the Sulawesi sea simulated in an ocean general circulation model

Abstract

The intraseasonal variability associated with mesoscale eddies in the Sulawcsi Sea simulated in a high resolution ocean general circulation model is described in detail. The cyclonic eddies, with a diameter of about 400 km, are generated at the entrance of the Sulawesi Sea between the Mindanao and the Halmahera Islands with 40 days interval. They are associated with a high speed (> 20 cm/s) down to 1000 m level. The anticlockwise circulation in the Sulawasi Sea, reported so far in both models and observations, may be a long time-averaged image of the above energetic eddies. The intraseasonal eddies significantly affect the volume transport through passages in the northern part of the Indonesian archipelago. The intraseasonal transport variation, however, is highly damped within the Indonesian seas in the present model.