to it as the “Central Equatorial Countercurrent (CECC)."

In addition to these six zonal currents (see ), there are two meridional ones: the cold California Current and the Peru Current from high-latitudes, which connect the NEC and NSEC & SSEC at the eastern boundaries of the Pacific, respectively. Particularly, the latter charges the cold-tongue region, and affects the equatorial SST significantly. We note that the upwelling along the Peruvian coast only occurs as an accompanying water-compensation to the equator-ward flow, and the cooling effect of the Peru Current to the equator cannot be solely attributed to it.

As early as 1973, Wyrtki was aware of the connection between the transport of NECC and the occurrence of El Niño (the NECC carries warm water into the eastern Pacific and the fluctuation in its strength leads to temperature anomaly off Central America). This viewpoint was very insightful, but few people have cared it for so long a time. It is a pity! Along with space-time data analyses of temperature and flow fields in the following sections, we have found that the NECC indeed plays a key part in generating El Niño. Besides the NECC, here all of the mentioned currents are taken 