A tropical ocean recharge mechanism for climate variability. Part I: Equatorial heat content changes induced by the off-equatorial wind

Abstract

A reduced-gravity shallow-water model, an oceanic general circulation model for the Pacific region, and the analytical model of the equatorial β plane bounded in the zonal direction are used to investigate the equatorial thermocline response to tropical and subtropical wind stress forcing. The results show that the wind stress forcing in the tropical and subtropical region can generate a nearly zonal uniform thermocline depth change in the equatorial region. The response timescale is longer when the wind stress is placed farther away from the equator. There exist latitude bands around 10°-15°N and 10°-15°S where the forcing can cause a relatively large equatorial response. When the forcing is located in the eastern basin, the response timescale is longer and its magnitude is larger than the case when the forcing is located in the western basin. Thus the eastern tropical to subtropical region is a relatively effective area for off-equatorial wind stress to generate an equatorial thermocline response. When the wind stress forcing has a longer period, the response of the equatorial thermocline has a larger magnitude. The results from this study's numerical experiments and the analytical solution are consistent. The present study has implications for the broad-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction in the tropical region.