A Maluku Sea intermediate western boundary current connecting Pacific Ocean circulation to the Indonesian Throughflow

• Published in: Nature Communications
• Main Authors: Yuan, Dongliang, Yin, Xueli, Li, Xiang, Corvianawatie, Corry, Wang, Zheng, Li, Yao, Yang, Ya, Hu, Xiaoyue, Wang, Jing, Tan, Shuwen, Surinati, Dewi, Purwandana, Adi, Wardana, Adhitya Kusuma, Ismail, Mochamad Furqon Azis, Budiman, Asep Sandra, Bayhaqi, Ahmad, Avianto, Praditya, Santoso, Priyadi Dwi, Kusmanto, Edi, Dirhamsyah, Arifin, Zainal, Pratt, Larry J.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: NATURE PORTFOLIO 2022
• Subjects: Science & Technology - Other Topics; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Pacific; Indian; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/178983; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29617-6

The Indonesian Throughflow plays an important role in the global ocean circulation and climate. Existing studies of the Indonesian Throughflow have focused on the Makassar Strait and the exit straits, where the upper thermocline currents carry North Pacific waters to the Indian Ocean. Here we show, using mooring observations, that a previous unknown intermediate western boundary current (with the core at similar to 1000 m depth) exists in the Maluku Sea, which transports intermediate waters (primarily the Antarctic Intermediate Water) from the Pacific into the Seram-Banda Seas through the Lifamatola Passage above the bottom overflow. Our results suggest the importance of the western boundary current in global ocean intermediate circulation and overturn. We anticipate that our study is the beginning of more extensive investigations of the intermediate circulation of the Indo-Pacific ocean in global overturn, which shall improve our understanding of ocean heat and CO2 storages significantly.