An examination of advection in the northeast Pacific Ocean, 2001–2005

Horizontal advection has been assumed negligible within the Alaskan Gyre (AG). With the recently available Argo data this assumption can be tested. To estimate advection, the observed heat content (estimated from Argo data) was compared to the expected (based on surface heat fluxes) and the difference between these was defined as advection. Four stations were investigated. Our proxy suggests periods of greater advection than previously estimated. Most periods of strong advection were associated with oceanographic events such as the migration of the North Pacific Current and the passage of eddies. However, there were also periods of significant advection that were not expected, for example a region‐wide event was observed in the winter of 2004–05. These results show that although advection is minimal in the AG, there are periods in which use of 1‐D models for studies of short (monthly) scale processes is questionable.