- The thermocline water circulation in the Coral Sea is dominated by a the wide incoming South Equatorial Current (SEC). Because of the horizontal structure of the wind and the encounter with islands and archipelagoes at the entrance of the Coral Sea, the SEC splits into narrow zonal currents called « jets ». Those were found to derive from the wind field (wind driven zonal jets); their annual variations follow a resonant wave system (annual cycle of the circulation of the subtropical South West Pacific from an ocean general circulation model).