Evidence for shallow zonal jets in the South Equatorial Current region of the southwest Pacific

At depths above 1000 m, the currents of the southwestern Pacific are tradit ionally considered to be dominated hv the broad westward flow of the South Equatorial Current, part of the South Pacific subtropical Eyre. Results fro m the OCCAM global ocean model, reported here, indicate that in reality the South Equatorial Current is broken up into a series of zonal jets by the e xtensive shallow topography associated with islands and reefs. This paper d iscusses the large-scale structure of the jets and their effect an the temp erature and salinity fields. It is shown that some of the jets advect cores of high or low salinity water, which may be used experimentally to identif y the jets and their pathways. Comparisons with hydrographic observations s how some agreement with the model results but a more detailed experimental program is required.