JOURNAL

OF GEOPHYSICAL

RESEARCH,

VOL.

92, NO. C12, PAGES

12,941-12,946, NOVEMBER

15, 1987

Indonesian Through Flow and the AssociatedPressureGradient

KLAUS

WYRTKI

Department of Oceanographyand Hawaii Institute of Geophysics,University of Hawaii, Honolulu

The flow of water from the western Pacific to the eastern Indian Ocean through the Indonesian
archipelago is governed by a strong pressure gradient. Dynamic height computations determine the
average sea level difference as 16 cm and show that most of the pressuregradient is contained in the
upper 200 m. Sea level data from Davao in the Philippines and from Darwin in Australia are used to
determinethe annual signal and the interannual variations of the pressuregradient for the years 1966 to
1985. The annual signal has a maximum during the southeast monsoon in July and August and a
minimum in January and February. Interannual variations are not related to the Southern Oscillation
becausesea level is low at both stations during E1 Nifio events,and thus there is little influence on the
sea level diftrence. The mechanismof the through flow is discussed,but a determination of its numerical
value will have to await direct measurements.A comparison of the sea level difference with results from a
numerical model by Kindle shows satisfactory agreement. It is concluded that the variability of the
through flow can be monitored by sealevel measurements.

INTRODUCTION

drops are slightly more pronounced at Guam and Truk than

at Davao. The annual cycle is weak and is often overshadowedby both the high- and the low-frequencyvariations.
an increase of sea level on the western sides of the oceans and
Its
amplitude is less than 6 cm at all stations. Sea level at
a lowering on its easternsides.Consequently,a pressuregradiDavao risesslowly at a rate of 6.4 mm per year. This trend has
ent must exist between the western Pacific and the eastern
Indian Ocean acrossthe Indonesian waters, as was recognized been removed from the record shown in Figure 1. The other
by Wyrtki'[1961]. This pressuregradient should drive a flow three stations do not show a trend significantlydifferent from
of water through the Indonesian archipelago,which connects zero. The detrendedsealevel record at Davao is usedto reprethe two oceans.An estimate of the magnitude of this flow by sent the pressure head for the through flow in the western
Pacific Ocean.
Wyrtki gave a low value of only 1.5 Sv and was based on the
Along the northwesterncoast of Australia, sea level stations
assumption that the many narrow passages and channels
exist at Dampier, Port Hedland, Broome, Wyndham, and
through which the water has to pass would seriouslyrestrict
Darwin. The annual cycle and the low-frequency variations at
the flow. More recent estimates of the flow, which are summarized by Gordon [1986], give substantially higher values for Port Hedland and Darwin agree very well. They also agree
with shorter and interrupted records at Dampier and Wyndthis through flow. The neededdirect measurementsof the flow
ham but not with Broome, which probably has a record of
are planned for the forthcomingIndonesianSeasThroughflow
low quality. Sea level along this coast is dominated by the
Experiment (INSTEP). These measurementsare designedto
annual cycle, which has an amplitude of about 10 cm. Superprovide a quantitative determination of the flow and of its
imposed are low-frequencysignalsof similar amplitude, which
variation during 18 months and to relate the water transports
coincide with E1 Nifio events.No long-term trend is obvious
to measured sea level differences. The sea level observations in
The prevailing trade winds over the tropical oceans cause

turn will then allow us to monitor

the flow in the future and

to draw conclusionsbased on existingdata about fluctuations

of the through flow during the past 2 decades.
This study is an attempt to shed some light on the annual
and interannual variations of the through flow and on its
vertical

structure.

Observations

of sea level will

be used to

form and analyze time seriesof the pressuregradient between

the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Observations of dynamic height will give the absolute value of the pressuregradient and give insight into its vertical structure.

In the western Pacific Ocean, long time series of sea level

exist at Davao and Jolo in the Philippines and at Guam and
Truk. Records start in 1948. The record from Jolo is interrupresembles that of Davao

very well. The records of all four stations are dominated by

large drops of sea level associatedwith E1 Nifio events.These
Copyright 1987 by the American GeophysicalUnion.
Paper number 7C0706.
0148-0227/87/007C-0706505.00

Because the record from Port

Hedland

has several short gaps and because it is further away from

Indonesia, the time seriesfrom Darwin is used to represent sea
level along this coast, which is considered representative for
the lower side of the pressure gradient between the two
oceans.Unfortunately, no sea level records have been taken in
Indonesia since 1940, but a 7-year-long record is available
from Cilacap (previously Tjilatjap) at the south coast of Java
for the years 1925 to 1931.
The sea level record at Davao in the Philippines with the
linear trend removed and the record at Darwin, Australia, are

now used to determine the pressure difference between the

SEA LEVEL OBSERVATIONS

ted in 1959 and 1979 but otherwise

in these short records.

Pacific

Ocean

waters

relative

and

the Indian

to an unknown

Ocean

mean

across

the Indonesian

difference.

The

corre-

sponding time seriesshown in Figure 1 exhibit a large annual

signal and interannual fluctuations. The annual signal is very
regular and has a mean amplitude of 15 cm. The interannual
variations have an amplitude of about 5 cm, but they are no
longer obviously related to El Nifio events as are the records
of the two stations forming the difference. Maximum deviations of the sea level difference from its mean value are q-28
cm.

12,941

12,942

WYRTKI'
INDONESIAN
THROUGH
FLOWANDPRESSURE
GRADIENT

66

67 i 68

69

70 i 71

72

73

74

75

76 , 77 , 78 i 79 i 80

81

82 , 83 i 84 , 85 30

DAVAO

-10

-2O

-20

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

75

76 , 77 , 78

79

80 . 81

82

83

85 30

-10

-10

-2O

-2O

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

7't

75

76

30

77

.........

78

79

_i !i.....

20

10

-- --

80

81

82

83

85

30

20

10

.--

--

* .....

-10

-10

-20

-20

DAVA
-30 66 ' 67 ' 68 ' 69 ' 70 ' 71 ' 72 ' 73 ' 7 ' 75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

85

-30

Fig.1. Sealevel
atDavao,
Philippines,
andDarwin,
Australia,
andthesealevel
difference
between
Davao
andDarwin
during
theperiod
1966to 1985in centimeters.
Thethincurvegives
themonthly
means'
theheavy
curve
gives
the
12-monthrunningmean.A lineartrendhasbeenremovedfromthedataat Davao.

DYNAMIC

HEIGHT

DIFFERENCES

A determinationof the absolutevalue of the mean sealevel

namictopographyis locatedbetweenMindanaoand New

Guinea[Wyrtki, 1974].Typicalvaluesof dynamicheightrelative to 1000 dbar are 180 dyn cm, and they changelittle

difference
is possible
by theuseof dynamictopographies.
The

during the year.

circulationin the westernPacific Ocean is dominated by the

Mindanao Current in which large parts of the North Equatorial Current are recirculatedinto the North Equatorial
Countercurrent.Whereas the Mindanao Current and the as-

In the regionbetweenIndonesiaand Australia,circulation

is anticyclonic
andinvolvesthe formationof theSouthEqua-

sociated
cyclonic
Mindanaoeddyare permanent
features
of

the Indian Ocean toward the Timor Sea, as is shown in the

the circulationin this region,duringthe periodfrom May to

Octoberthe SouthEquatorialCurrentflowsalongthe coast
of New Guinea and suppliessome water to the countercurrent.The circulationin this regionis suchthat high dy-

torial Current in the Indian Ocean. A ridge of high dynamic

topography
stretches
fromthecenterof thesubtropical
gyreof
Indian Oceanatlas [Wyrtki, 1971]. Dynamictopographyis
low alongthe peripheryof the anticyclonic
flow, namely,
alongthecoastsof AustraliaandJava.Lowestvaluesof dynamictopography
relativeto 1000dbar are near150dyn cm

WYRTKI' INDONESIANTHROUGH FLOW AND PRESSURE

GRADIENT

and occur from July to October, when the southeastmonsoon

blows in full strength over this region. At this time the sea
level difference
about

between

the two

oceans has a maximum

12,943

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112
190

of

30 cm.

It is difficult

to determine

the mean

value

or the annual

variation of dynamic height from the maps quoted above, and

therefore hydrographic data have been used to compute dynamic heightsfor two selectedareas thought to representthe
head and the bottom of the pressure gradient governing the
flow through the Indonesian waters. The data prepared by
Levitus [1982] have been used to compute dynamic heights
relative to 1000 dbar for 20 one-degreesquaresbetween Mindano and New Guinea

for each of the four seasons for which

180

+1o

170

data are given. The results are shown in Figure 2 together

with the mean annual variation

of sea level at Davao.

level curve lies well within the scatter of dynamic height,

which exhibits a similar annual cycle. The high values of dynamic height near 190 dyn cm are all found north of New
Guinea

and east of Halmahera.

The sea

We will use sea level at Davao

160
-10

relative to a mean dynamic height of 183 dyn cm as representativefor the pressurehead in the area where the through
flow originates.

Correspondingcomputationsof dynamic height have been

made for the area south of Java, between 10S and the coast
of Java and between

150

104E and 120E. The data of Levitus

[1982] give a mean dynamic height of 174 dyn cm and show

no valuesbelow 167 dyn cm for any 1 square or season.This
is in stark contrast with the maps of dynamic height shown in
the Indian Ocean atlas [Wyrtki, 1971], where several maps
show valuesbelow 150 dyn cm. Consequently,we have used
the data from the Indian Ocean atlas and have computed
dynamic heightsfor all stationsin the region south of Java.
The results are shown in Figure 3 and indicate that dynamic
height doesdrop below 150 dyn cm during the period July to
October,in particularin the easternpart of the area.The data
with low valuesof dynamic height come from Australian, Japanese,and Soviet researchvessels,and we have no explanation
why similarvaluesdo not appearin the Levitusdata.
SEA LEVEL DIFFERENCES

The mean annual cyclesof sealevel at Cilacap and Darwin

are shownin Figure 3 togetherwith the dynamicheightsrela-

DARWIN
140

CILACAP

130

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9101112
Fig. 3. Monthly mean sealevel at Cilacap,Java, and at Darwin,
Australia, in centimeters(right scale),and dynamic height at individual stations in the area south of Java in dynamic centimeters (left
scale).Dynamic heights are shown by dots west of 110E and by
crosses east of 110E.

tive to 1000 dbar in the area south of Java. Sea level is plotted
relative to a mean dynamic height of 168 dyn cm. It is apparent that the annual signalsof dynamic height and sea level
+10

190

.. ....

sea level difference between the Pacific and Indian

DAVAO

height are locatedcloseto the coast of Java, where upwelling

exists [Wyrtki, 1962]. During the period from December to
April, low dynamicheightis found further offshoreand relates

-\

x.,

-I0

170

oceans has

a maximum. The low values of sea level and of dynamic height

have two different causesof origin. During the southeastmonsoon between June and October, low sea level and dynamic

180-

agreeand that the low valuesof dynamicheight in the second

part of the year are real. It is at that time of the year that the

I0

II

12

TIME (months)

to the Java Coastal Current [Soeriaatmadja, 1957], but sea

level along the coast is comparatively high. In view of the
general agreementbetween the annual cyclesof sea level at
Cilacap and Darwin and of dynamic height in the region
south of Java, we consider sea level at Darwin to represent the
pressureat the bottom of the sealevel gradientfrom the Pacif-

Fig. 2. Monthly mean sealevel at Davao, Philippines,during the

period 1966 to 1985 in centimeters(right scale),and quarterly mean
and extremedynamicheightsin the area betweenMindanao and New

ic to the Indian Ocean. It would, of course, be better to have

Guinea in dynamic centimeters(left scale).

data from a sea level station at the south coast of Java.

12,944

WYRTKI'INDONESIAN
THROUGH
FLOWANDPRESSURE
GRADIENT
1

The annual cyclesof sealevel at Davao and Darwin are out

of phase,as can be seenfrom Figures2 and 3, and conse-

10

11

12

+8

quentlythe sealeveldifferencebetweenthe two locationsexhibits a very large amplitude.The annual cyclesat the two
locations are also rather regular (Figure 1), and thereforethe
differenceof sealevel has a very regular annual cycle,which is
due to the regularityof the monsoons.The existenceof this
strongand regularannualcyclein the pressuregradientbe-

DAVAO

+4

-4

tween the two oceans indicates that the Indonesian through

flow will be governedby a large annual cyclehavinga maximum during July and Augustand a minimum during January

-8

+8

and February.
The absolute value of the sea level difference between the
western Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean can be deter-

+4

,,
,,

mined from the differenceof dynamic height between the two

iI
iI

areas(Figure 4). This pressuredifferencedecreases

from the

sea surface to about 500 m, where it reaches a minimum.

is

Belowthe minimuma weak pressuredifferencefrom the Pacific to the Indian Ocean is again presentat the 1000-m level,
indicating a deeper flow of water from the Pacific to the
Indian Ocean.The mean pressuredifferenceat the seasurface

DARWIN

in the uppermost 150 m.

MEAN

ANNUAL

-8

ss
ss

relative to the minimum near 500 m is 16.3 dyn cm. Strong

gradientsare concentrated
in a rather thin layer of only 250
m. From February to April the pressuregradienthas a minimum of about 9 dyn cm, whereasduring Augustto Octoberit
is as large as 23 dyn cm. This annualvariationis concentrated

-4

/
!

-12

10

11

12

Fig. 5. Monthly mean sea level at Davao and Darwin plotted

relativeto the mean pressuredifferenceof 16.3 dyn cm, representing
the annual variation of the pressuregradientfrom the Pacific to the

VARIATION

Indian

The mean annual variation of the through flow can now be

assessed
by usingthe sealevel record from Davao to represent

the pressurehead in the westernPacific and the sea level

Ocean.

running means of sea level at the two stationscorrelate at

+0.70, indicating that low-frequencysignals are coherent

record from Darwin to representthe pressurein the eastern
acrossthe Indonesianwaters,the importanceof which will be
Indian Ocean and plotting them relative to a mean sea level
discussed later.
difference of 16.3 cm (Figure 5). Accordingly, the sea level

gradientgoverningthe throughflow variesfrom about zero

during Januaryand Februaryto a maximumof about 33 cm
during July and August.

Monthly meansof sea level at Davao and Darwin do not

correlate at all, despitean inversemean annual cycle,but the
sea level difference between the two stations is correlated

better with Darwin (--0.80) than with Davao (+ 0.60), indicat-

ing that the sealevel differenceis governedchieflyby the sea

level in the eastern Indian Ocean. In contrast, the 12-month
DYNAMIC
24

20

HEIGHT
16

DIFFERENCE

12

200
o

'400 Ld
1-600I

MEAN
FMA
ASO

-800

',

',

FLOW

MECHANISM

The mechanism for the transfer of water from the Pacific to

the Indian Ocean has been outlined by Wyrtki [1961]. It is

linked to the monsoonsand to the developmentof upwelling
in the Banda Sea and along the south coast of Java. During
the north monsoon from November to March, surface water
flows both from the Java Sea and from the Pacific Ocean into

the BandaSea,causingan accumulationof warm,low-salinity

water and a depression
of the thermocline.The intertropical
convergence
liessouthof Javaand stretches
toward northern
Australia. Winds are not favorable for a removal of the water

THROUGH

I000

Fig. 4. Differenceof dynamicheightbetweenthe area southof

Mindanao and the area south of Java from the sea surface to 1000 m

from the Banda Sea into the Indian Ocean, and consequently
water accumulates in the Banda Sea and depressesthe ther-

mocline.The pressuregradientfrom the Pacificto the Indian

Oceanis alsoweak (Figure4), and thusthe throughflow from
the Pacific to the Indian Ocean is rather weak during this
season.

During the southeastmonsoonfrom May to September,

strongsoutheastwindsblow over the entire region,and the
SouthEquatorialCurrent of the Indian Oceanformsbetween
Java and Australia. Much of its water is apparently supplied
from the Banda Sea, where strong upwelling occurs.Within
the Indonesian waters, flow patterns seem to be more com-

plex.Thereis a strongsouthwardflowin the MacassarStrait,

in dynamiccentimeters.
The solidheavycurvegivesthe mean;the as measured on an anchor station during the Snellius Exshort-dashedline givesthe averageduring February,March, and
April; and the long-dashed
line givesthe averageduring August, pedition [Lek, 1938]. The flow is concentratedin the upper
September,and October.

200 m and reachesa speedof 84 cm s-x at a depthof 50 m

WYRTKI' INDONESIANTHROUGH FLOW AND PRESSURE

GRADIENT

I-Wyrtki, 1961]. Water is also flowing into the Banda Sea

between Halmahera

12,945

driven model for the years 1977 to 1984 are shownin Figure

and New Guinea as an extension of the

6. They compare very well with the sea level differenceDavao

New Guinea Coastal Current, which flows stronglywestward minus Darwin. The high maximum of through flow in July
during this season. Some of this water seemsto return to the 1979 and the low minima in January 1977 and January 1980
Pacific between Halmahera and Celebes. Some water leaves
are well represented,as is the small maximum of through flow
the Banda Sea to the west and enters the Java Sea, but it is in July 1981.Not properlyrepresentedare the high maxima of
most difficult to give a water balance of the area without the through flow in July 1977 and July 1982.The steadyincrease
help of extensivecurrentmeasurements.
Sea level during the of the minimum of throughflow from 1980 to 1983 is apparsoutheastmonsoon seasonis high on the Pacific side of the ent in both the model and the sea level differences. The disthrough flow and very low at Darwin and in the Indian Ocean agreementbetween the low pass-filtered curves of the sea level
south of Java. The sea level difference has a maximum of
differenceand of the model shouldnot be surprisingin view of
about 30 cm during this season,and a very strongthrough the relative crudenessof the model, of the winds driving it,
flow can be expected.The lowering of sea level is directly and of the possibilityof trendsin the sealevel data.
related to the strong southeast winds and to the formation of

upwellingand of the South Equatorial Current along the

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

south coast of Java.

INTERANNUAL

Interannual

variations

VARIATIONS

of the sea level difference

across the

Indonesian waters are apparent from Figure 1. The lowfrequency variations of sea level at Davao and Darwin correlate and show low sea level at both stations during E1 Nifio
events. This is most pronounced in 1969, 1972-1973 and
1982-1983 but also can be seen in 1976 and 1980. In contrast,
the sea level differencedoes not show a pattern related to E1
Nifio. This phenomenon can be explained by the behavior of
the wind field over the Indonesian region. Accordingto Barnett [1983] the convergenceof surface winds over Indonesia is
subject to strong interannual variations in its intensity and
location becauseof the coupling of the trade winds over the
Pacific with the monsoons over the Indian Ocean. The principal time and space scalesof this coupling lead either to an
intensification or to a weakening of the convergenceof winds.
During strong convergenceof the wind field, which is associated with a high state of the Southern Oscillation, sea level is
raised both in the western

Pacific

and in the eastern Indian

Dynamic height differencesbetween the areas south of Mindanao and south of Java show that a strong pressuregradient
exists from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean. This pressure
gradient is concentratedin the upper 200 m. The mean annual
variations of the pressuregradient are reflected in the difference of sea level between Davao in the Philippines and
Darwin, Australia. The mean annual cycle and the interannual
variations of the sea level differenceagree well with the results
of a wind-driven numerical model, which gives confidencein
both the validity of the data and of the model. This agreement
indicatesthat the wind-driven changesin the structure of mass
in the two adjoining oceans govern the variability of the
through flow. The agreement also implies that the low-

frequencyvariability of the throughflow can be monitoredby

means of sea level observations.

Whereas

sea level observa-

tions can monitor the variability of the through flow, its magnitude will have to be measureddirectly by means of current

30 ' 77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

Oceanandis highin theIdonesian

waters.DuringE1Nifo,
winds are divergent over Indonesia, and sea level drops within
as well as on both sidesof the Indonesian archipelago.These
characteristicsof the wind field imply that the differenceof sea
level

between

the

western

Pacific

and

the

eastern

20

Indian

Ocean is only weakly affectedby the principal wind patterns

associated with E1 Nifo and the Southern Oscillation, and
this is reflected in the sea level record.

The slow interannual

variations

-I0

of the sea level difference

between Davao and Darwin seen in Figure 1 are probably

-20

related to fluctuations

cm

of the wind field which are not associ-

ated with the Southern Oscillation, or they may be due to

uncertainties

in the sea level records themselves.

14

12

COMPARISON WITH

MODEL

RESULTS

A global numerical model has recently been used by J. C.

Kindle et al. (manuscript in preparation, 1987) to compute
variations of the Indonesian through flow for the period 1977
to 1984. The computations show the developmentof a very
strong western boundary current which separates from the
Mindanao Current, flows through the Celebes Sea and the
Macassar Strait, continues through the Flores Sea and turns
around Timor into the Indian Ocean. The model givesa mean
annual cyclefor the through flow with a maximum in August
and a minimum in February in agreement with the sea level
data. The interannual variations computed from this wind-

I0
.........

Fig. 6. Variation of the sea level difference (in centimeters) between Davao and Darwin from 1977 to 1984 and (bottom) transports
(in sverdrups)through the Indonesian waters from a numerical model
by Kindle et al. (manuscript in preparation, 1987).

12,946

WYRTKI:INDONESIAN
THROUGHFLOWANDPRESSURE
GRADIENT

meter moorings,and suchmeasurements

are plannedin the
forthcoming INSTEP project.

Lek, L., Die Ergebnisseder Strom- und Serienmessungen,

Snellius
Exped.East.Part Neth. East Indies1929-30,2, 169pp., 1938.
Levitus,S., Climatologicalatlasof the world ocean,NOAA Prof. Pap.,

The details of the sea level gradient within the Indonesian

13, 173 pp., 1982.
waters will have to be determinedby a network of sea level Soeriaatmadja,R. E., The coastalcurrent south of Java, Mar. Res.

gauges,
whichisplannedforINSTEP.Data fromthissealevel
network will also contribute important information to the

Indonesia, 3, 41-55, 1957.

Wyrtki, K., Physicaloceanography

of the southeast
Asianwaters,vol.
2, NAGA report, 195pp., Univ. of Calif., SanDiego, 1961.

studyof the dynamics

of the flow in thiscomplexregionand Wyrtki, K., The upwellingin the regionbetweenJavaand Australia
in particularto thedynamics
of cross-equatorial
flow.
during the south-eastmonsoon,Aust.J. Mar. FreshwaterRes.,13,
217-225, 1962.

Acknowledgments.
Supportfor this researchwasprovidedby the
National ScienceFoundationunder grant NSF OCE85-15404.This
supportis gratefullyacknowledged.
I alsolike to thank Gary Mitchum and RogerLukasfor valuablecomments.Hawaii Instituteof
Geophysicscontribution 1917.

Wyrtki, K., Oceanographic

Atlas of the InternationalIndian Ocean
Expedition,531 pp., National ScienceFoundation,Washington,D.
C., 1971.

Wyrtki, K., The dynamictopographyof the Pacific Ocean and its

fluctuations,Ref. HIG 74-5, 19 pp., Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu,
1974.

REFERENCES

Barnett,T. P., Interactionof the monsoonand Pacifictrade wind

systemat interannualtime scales,I, The equatorialzone,Mon.

K. Wyrtki, Departmentof Oceanography,

Division of Natural Sciences,University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu,
HI

96822.

Weather Rev., 111,756-773, 1983.

Gordon,A. L., Interoceanexchangeof thermoclinewater,J. Geophys.

Res., 91, 5037-5046, 1986.

(ReceivedMay 11, 1987;

acceptedAugust 6, 1987.)