Indonesian Throughflow (ITF)

The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) is the flow of warm, fresh Pacific water into the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian archipelago, the only low-latitude inter-ocean exchange in the global circulation. The INSTANT mooring program measured a mean transport near 15 Sverdrups, with more recent estimates closer to 16.8 Sv, fed mainly through Makassar Strait and the Lombok, Ombai, and Timor passages. It is driven by the sea-level difference between the western Pacific and the eastern Indian Ocean, and it varies with ENSO. The ITF carries heat and freshwater that influence Indian Ocean and global climate.