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The Indonesian seas and their role in the coupled ocean–climate system

Nature Geoscience volume 7, pages 487–492 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Indonesian seas represent the only pathway that connects different ocean basins in the tropics, and therefore play a pivotal role in the coupled ocean and climate system. Here, water flows from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean through a series of narrow straits. The throughflow is characterized by strong velocities at water depths of about 100 m, with more minor contributions from surface flow than previously thought. A synthesis of observational data and model simulations indicates that the temperature, salinity and velocity depth profiles of the Indonesian throughflow are determined by intense vertical mixing within the Indonesian seas. This mixing results in the net upwelling of thermocline water in the Indonesian seas, which in turn lowers sea surface temperatures in this region by about 0.5 °C, with implications for precipitation and air–sea heat flux. Moreover, the depth and velocity of the core of the Indonesian throughflow has varied with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and Indian Ocean Dipole on interannual to decadal timescales. Specifically, the throughflow slows and shoals during El Niño events. Changes in the Indonesian throughflow alter surface and subsurface heat content and sea level in the Indian Ocean between 10 and 15° S. We conclude that inter-ocean exchange through the Indonesian seas serves as a feedback modulating the regional precipitation and wind patterns.

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Figure 1: Bathymetric and geographic features of the Indonesian seas.
Figure 2: Changes in temperature and salinity as the Pacific inflow water traverses the regional Indonesia seas.
Figure 3: Changes in tropical Indo-Pacific mean climate from models with and without tidal mixing parameterizations.
Figure 4: Time series of the depth of the maximum along-channel velocity (m s−1) within the Makassar Strait13.

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Acknowledgements

The material is partially based on work supporting J.S. by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under award no. NNX13AO38G. A.L.G. is supported by NA08OAR4320754 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce. The research was carried out in part by T.L. at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. S.E.W. was partly funded by the Australian Climate Change Science Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, 92093-0230, California, USA

    Janet Sprintall

  2. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, Palisades, 10964, New York, USA

    Arnold L. Gordon

  3. LEGOS, 18 avenue Edouard Belin, Toulouse Cedex 9, 31401, France

    Ariane Koch-Larrouy

  4. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91109, California, USA

    Tong Lee

  5. SOEST/IPRC, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    James T. Potemra

  6. College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, 97331-5503, USA

    Kandaga Pujiana

  7. Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, 40132, Indonesia

    Kandaga Pujiana

  8. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Hobart, 7000, Tasmania, Australia

    Susan E. Wijffels

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  1. Janet Sprintall
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Correspondence to Janet Sprintall.

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Sprintall, J., Gordon, A., Koch-Larrouy, A. et al. The Indonesian seas and their role in the coupled ocean–climate system. Nature Geosci 7, 487–492 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2188

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