Why are there such strong steric height gradients off western Australia ? | Western Pacific international meeting and workshop on Toga Coare : proceedings
1989
Godfrey, J.S. | Weaver, A.
The Indonesian channel permits equatorial Pacific winds to maintain a bank of very warm (28°C) water along Australian's Northwest shelf. This leads to net ocean cooling of 20°S off western Australia (compared to 40° or 50°S in the eastern Atlantic of Pacific). It is suggested that this convective cooling towards the latitude-dependent Haney equilibrium temperature in turn generates meridional pressure gradients and the onshore geostrophic flows that drive the Leeuwin current; in this sense the equatorial Pacific winds drive the Leeuwin current. Preliminary results from a numerical model support this hypothesis. (Résumé d'auteur)
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