Numerical study on the bifurcation of the North Equatorial Current

A 1.5-layer reduced-gravity model forced by wind stress is used to study the bifurcations of the North Equatorial Current (NEC). The authors found that after removing the Ekman drift, the modelled circulations can serve well as a proxy of the SODA circulations on the σθ=25.0 kg m-3 potential density surface based on available long-term reanalysis wind stress data. The modelled results show that the location of the western boundary bifurcation of the NEC depends on both zonal averaged and local zero wind stress curl latitude. The effects of the anomalous wind stress curl added in different areas are also investigated and it is found that they can change the strength of the Mindanao Eddy (ME), and then influence the interior pathway. © 2011 Science Press, Ocean University of China and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.