Interannual variations of North Equatorial Current transport in the Pacific Ocean during two types of El Niño

Interannual variations of Pacific North Equatorial Current (NEC) transport during eastern-Pacific El Niños (EP-El Niños) and central-Pacific El Niños (CP-El Niños) are investigated by composite analysis with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast Ocean Analysis/Reanalysis System 3. During EP-El Niño, NEC transport shows significant positive anomalies from the developing to decay phases, with the largest anomalies around the mature phase. During CP-El Niño, however, the NEC transport only shows positive anomalies before the mature phase, with much weaker anomalies than those during EP-El Niño. The NEC transport variations are strongly associated with variations of the tropical gyre and wind forcing in the tropical North Pacific. During EP-El Niño, strong westerly wind anomalies and positive wind stress curl anomalies in the tropical North Pacific induce local upward Ekman pumping and westward-propagating upwelling Rossby waves in the ocean, lowering the sea surface height and generating a cyclonic gyre anomaly in the western tropical Pacific. During CP-El Niño, however, strength of the wind and associated Ekman pumping velocity are very weak. Negative sea surface height and cyclonic flow anomalies are slightly north of those during EP El Niño.