Interannual variability of the East African Coastal Current associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Abstract The East African Coastal Current (EACC) is an important western boundary current of the tropical south Indian Ocean and plays an important role in the ocean circulation and biogeochemical cycles in the Indian Ocean. This study investigates the interannual variability of the EACC and its dynamical mechanisms. The result shows that the EACC has interannual variability associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) during 1993–2017. The EACC shows a significantly positive correlation with the Niño-3.4 index with a correlation coefficient of 0.65, lagging the Niño-3.4 index by 18 months. During the decaying phases of El Niño (La Niña) events, the negative (positive) sea level anomaly (SLA) propagates westward as upwelling (downwelling) Rossby waves from the southeast Indian Ocean to the southwest Indian Ocean and then strengthens (weakens) the EACC due to zonal SLA gradient off the East African coast under geostrophic equilibrium. The SLA gradually weakens in the southeast Indian Ocean during its westward propagation but strengthens in the southwest Indian Ocean promoted by local wind stress curl anomaly. This study can improve our understanding of the relationship between the western boundary current of the tropical south Indian Ocean and large-scale ENSO air–sea processes and is important for managing marine fisheries and ecosystems on the East African coast.