Internnual variations of water temperature and salinity along the 137°E meridian

Analyses were performed on hydrographic data gathered along the 137°E meridian by the R/V Ryofu Maru of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Distributions were obtained of the mean and standard deviation of water temperature and salinity along the section. Relationships between interannual variations of these variables and wind forcing were examined. A correlation analysis revealed that temperature change, which occurred in the equatorial region of the western North Pacific accompanied by El Nino and La Nina events, reached about 20°N with the inclination of isotherms across the north equatorial current fluctuating around 20°N. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of the winter water temperatures in the section was performed to extract variations following El Nino and La Nina events as the first mode and those corresponding to decadal changes of sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Pacific as the second mode. Interannual variations in the area of the North Pacific tropical saline water (NPTSW) and the North Pacific intermediate water (NPIW) along the section correspond well to interannual variations of the wind-stress curl minimum (negative value) in the area southeast of Japan. A remaining problem is to quantitatively evaluate the lag times of the variations to the wind-stress curl variation. In the equatorial region of the section, the northward extension of saline water is weak, and negative water temperature anomalies have often occurred in connection with El Nino events since the latter half of the 1970s. These changes may be part of the decadal variation of the North Pacific.