The response characters of sea surface flow to external forcing (wind stress and sea surface heat flux) and the more sensitive areas are analyzed by some numerical simulations.It is found that the more sensitive response area of sea surface circulation to wind stress is located near the equator and the west boundary of ocean according to the simulation results in the control run and sensitivity experiments.Corresponding to that over the extratropical region,the wind stress anomaly over the tropics (20°S—20°N) is greater and more significant impact on the sea surface circulation over tropic sea and also east boundary flow in the mid and highaltitude.The response of sea surface circulanton to sea surface heat flux anomaly is significant over tropic sea and also east boundary flow in the mid and highaltitude.The east boundary flow in Atlantic is more sensitive to sea surface heat flux than wind stress by the same external forcing(20％).The sea surface heat flux anomaly could have some influence on east boundary flow in the southern Pacific Ocean and the circumpolar flow around Antarctic continent.