Why are there such strong steric height gradients off western Australia ? Western Pacific international meeting and workshop on Toga Coare : proceedings Godfrey, J.S. Weaver, A. CIRCULATION OCEANIQUE INTERACTION OCEAN ATMOSPHERE VENT FLUX THERMIQUE MODELE MATHEMATIQUE The Indonesian channel permits equatorial Pacific winds to maintain a bank of very warm (28°C) water along Australian's Northwest shelf. This leads to net ocean cooling of 20°S off western Australia (compared to 40° or 50°S in the eastern Atlantic of Pacific). It is suggested that this convective cooling towards the latitude-dependent Haney equilibrium temperature in turn generates meridional pressure gradients and the onshore geostrophic flows that drive the Leeuwin current; in this sense the equatorial Pacific winds drive the Leeuwin current. Preliminary results from a numerical model support this hypothesis. (Résumé d'auteur) ORSTOM /Picaut, Joël (ed.) Lukas, R. (ed.) /Delcroix, Thierry (ed.) 1989 text https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:30209 fdi:30209 Godfrey J.S., Weaver A., . Why are there such strong steric height gradients off western Australia ?. In : Picaut Joël (ed.), Lukas R. (ed.), Delcroix Thierry (ed.), . Western Pacific international meeting and workshop on Toga Coare : proceedings ORSTOM, 1989, 215-222 Western Pacific International Meeting and Workshop on Toga Coare, Nouméa (NCL), 1989/05/24-30 EN PACIFIQUE TROPICAL OUEST