A schematic diagram illustrating the water pathways obtained from numerical simulations of the North Pacific subtropical/tropical upper ocean, as well as the main horizontal gyres and meridional-vertical cells of the ocean circulation. The shading regions with thin arrows indicate horizontal gyres; the subtropical gyre and the Mindanao eddy in the surface layer, and the additional tropical northeastern gyre at depth. The big arrows indicate vertical motions; the equatorial upwelling in the central and eastern Pacific, downwelling in the far western equatorial Pacific and in the off-equatorial North Pacific along 3-4N, and the subduction sites in the broad subtropics. For a more detailed description of the dynamical analyses of the physical processes that enabled this schematic, please see:
Rothstein, L.M., R-H Zhang, A.J. Busalacchi and D. Chen, 1998: A Numerical Simulation of the Mean Water Pathways in the Subtropical and Tropical Pacific Ocean. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 28, 322-343.
and
Rothstein, L.M. and D. Chen, 1997: Recent Progress and New Directions in ENSO Research. Oceanus, 39, 39-41.
