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Project details
| Title: | IMOS Sustained observations of the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait components of the Indonesian Throughflow |
| Id: | 2400 |
| Acronym: | IMOS: Observations of the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. |
| Investigator(s): | Bernadette Sloyan
CSIRO Oceans & Atmosphere - Hobart [details] |
| Description: | Given the importance of the Indonesian Throughflow to the Australian climate IMOS supported the long-term monitoring of the two major pathways of the throughflow - namely the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. The first 18-month deployment of the moorings array was completed in June 2011. This voyage will recover and redeploy these moorings for a further 18 month period. |
| Years: | 2011 |
List of surveys that this project was on. Click on column header to sort.
Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.
| Survey | Investigator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SOL2015_C01 [details] |
B. Sloyan (CSIRO) | This proposal will recover and redeploy deep ocean moorings in two key passages of the Indonesian Through Flow -Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. The moorings arrays, a component of the Australian Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS, http://imos.org.au/), will monitor more than 80% of the total Indonesian Throughflow and collect ocean mixing observations at the mooring location and other key sills in the Ombai Strait and Timor Passage. In situ 'climate quality' observations from these moorings will provide the required spatial and temporal coverage to understand ocean dynamics, the ocean's role in climate variability and change, investigate forcing of the atmosphere and ocean and assess the realism of data-assimilation ocean models and coupled ocean-atmosphere models. The scientific objectives of this proposal are: * Determine the mean and intraseasonal, interannual and decadal variability of the Indonesian Throughflow; * Understanding the links between ENSO and IOD climate modes and the volume, heat and salt transport variability of the Indonesian Throughflow; * Improved understanding of the response of the northern and northwestern Australia continental margin shelf/slope boundary currents and Leeuwin Current System to Indonesian Throughflow variability. * Understand the variability of mixing and quantify the impact on water mass property changes between the inflow and outflow passage to the Indonesian Throughflow. |
| SOL_5941 [details] |
B. Sloyan (CMAR) and B. Cowley (CMAR) | RV Solander Voyage 5941 - Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) Indonesian Throughflow Mooring Recovery and Deployments: Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. Scientific Objectives: The aim of IMOS Indonesian Throughflow moorings is to sustainably and directly measure the leakage of Pacific thermocline and intermediate waters from the western equatorial Pacific into the South Indian Ocean in the two major passages: Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. The Indonesian Passages represent an important "choke point" of the global ocean overturning circulation and the climate system. The interannual to decadal variability of the size and depth distribution of the flow through this choke point remains a troublesome unknown. In particular, changes in this flow will reflect long term changes in the Pacific and Indian Ocean wind fields, particularly any change in the Walker Circulation, as predicted by coupled climate models forced by increasing Greenhouse Gas scenarios. Changes in the associated heat flux are also anticipated as the global oceans warm. The IMOS Indonesian Throughflow array design is based on the more comprehensive INSTANT process study and is deemed the minimal required mooring array to monitor the Indonesian Throughflow. The Ombai Strait and Timor Passage Throughflow components comprise about 11 Sv of the 14 Sv total interbasin exchange. This mooring array integrates with the AIMS NAOS shelf line, allowing estimates of the interbasin exchange to include the transport of very warm waters across the Australian North West Shelf. All moorings in the Timor Passage are located along a high precision swath line of the TOPEX/Jason satellite altimeter missions. These data will shed light on how best to exploit altimetric data over our shallow northern shelves, especially in data assimilating models. |
| SS2012_V05 [details] |
B. Sloyan (CMAR) | MNF Southern Surveyor research voyage SS2012_v05. IMOS: Sustained observations of the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait components of the Indonesian Throughflow. Scientific Objectives: The Indonesian seas are the only major low-latitude connection in the global oceans (Figure 1). This connection permits the transfer of Pacific waters into the Indian Ocean, known as the Indonesian Throughflow. The Indonesian Throughflow actually consists of several filaments of flow that occupy different depth levels and weave their way through the complex island geometry comprised of broad shallow shelves and deep basins. The largest Indonesian seas are: the shallow Java Sea, the deeper Flores, Banda and Timor Seas, and the shallow Arafura Sea. The Indonesian Throughflow has a major influence on both the climate of the Indian Ocean and the global oceans. It is an important pathway for the transfer of climate signals and their anomalies around the world's oceans. While the heat and fresh water carried by the Indonesian Throughflow are known to affect the basin budgets of both the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the Indonesian Throughflow is poorly simulated in ocean circulation, seasonal prediction and climate models. Given the importance of the Indonesian Throughflow to the Australian climate IMOS supported the long-term monitoring of the two major pathways of the throughflow - namely the Timor Passage and Ombai Strait. The first 18-month deployment of the moorings array was completed in June 2011. This voyage will recover and redeploy these moorings for a further 18 month period. Part extract from voyage plan, please read plan for full details. |