Oceanic transports through the Solomon Sea: The bend of the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent

Thermocline waters of the tropical southwest Pacific can be traced back to the center of the South Pacific basin and have a potential influence on equatorial surface conditions and on the characteristics of the El Nino Southern Oscillation on decadal timescales. The Solomon Sea is traversed by this influential flow, and therefore is an optimal place for exploring this oceanic connection to the equator. From a high-resolution hydrographic survey at which we applied an inverse box model, we describe the main pathways at the entrance of the Solomon Sea, and more particularly the extremely sharp bend of the western boundary current around the south-east tip of Papua New Guinea. Of the 30 Sv subtropical waters transported into the Coral Sea from the east, above 1300 m, 29 +/- 5 Sv makes its way through the Solomon Sea with a large part transported in a boundary current, at the entrance of the Solomon Sea. Around the south-east tip of Papua New Guinea, the Gulf of Papua Current turns abruptly to the north, in a very sharp bend as it merges into the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent, on its way, toward the equator. The warm currents transport large amounts of internal energy, with a total of 1.0 +/- 0.3 10(15)W entering the Solomon Sea from the south. Citation: Gasparin, F., A. Ganachaud, C. Maes, F. Marin, and G. Eldin (2012), Oceanic transports through the Solomon Sea: The bend of the New Guinea Coastal Undercurrent, Geophys. Res. Lett., 39, L15608, doi:10.1029/2012GL052575.