SSTs and currents (shown in ) have shown good cooperativity of spatial patterns to all the grid points. Hence, the integration process is feasible and the integrated version of the ESMD method can be adopted as a new approach for space–time data analyses.

Consistency between Current Changes and SST Anomalies
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It is generally recognized that all of the equatorial currents, such as the NECC, NSEC and SSEC, have zonal distributions, as shown in and (only the zonal velocities are drawn), but the results in and indicate their surprising streamlines, which do not merely belong to certain currents, where they may incline, retrace, or make many-times turns throughout the whole region. These characteristics benefit the heat redistribution in the equatorial Pacific.In particular, the equatorward transport of warm water from the north and that of cold water from the south may make a great contribution to the occurrences of El Niño and La Niña events, respectively.

The interannual evolution of SST anomaly with respect to time and longitude shown in agrees well with the documented ENSO cycle. We note that the locations of SST anomalies in this figure are very clear and the debate about “*whether the CP type of El 