The Mindanao current: Mean structure and connectivity

Abstract

The Mindanao Current (MC), a low-latitude western boundary current in the Pacific Ocean, plays an important role in heat and freshwater transport to the western Pacific warm pool and the Indian Ocean. However, there have been relatively few comprehensive studies of the structure and variability of the MC and its connectivity to regional circulation. The Origins of the Kuroshio and Mindanao Current (OKMC) initiative combines four years of glider observations of the MC, a historical conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD)/float climatology, and results from a global strongly eddying forward ocean general circulation model simulation and a regional ocean state estimate. The MC is resolved as a strong southward current primarily within the upper 200 m, approaching 1 m s–1, and extending roughly 300 km offshore of Mindanao. Observations and model simulations show a persistent northward Mindanao Undercurrent (MUC) below the thermocline. The MC transports water masses of North Pacific origin southward, while the MUC carries water with South Pacific characteristics northward. The subthermocline transport of the MC and the MUC is connected to other undercurrents in the Philippine Sea. The variability of this transport is a topic of continuing research.