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Project details
| Title: | National Facility External Users: E. Schulz (BOM) |
| Id: | 2414 |
| Acronym: | National Facility user: Schulz, E. |
| Investigator(s): | Eric Schulz
Bureau of Meteorology [details] |
| Description: | |
| Years: | 2013 |
List of surveys that this project was on.
Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.
| Survey | Investigator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SS2013_V04 [details] |
E. Schulz (BOM) | MNF Southern Surveyor research voyage SS2013_v04. Observations of remarkable eastward flows and eddies in the subtropical southeast Indian Ocean. Scientific Objectives: Our work will include a suite of CTD, microstructure, surface drifter and float observations,and a mooring that will contribute to answering a first-order gap in our understanding of the large-scale currents in the subtropical southeast Indian Ocean. The presence of a near-surface, eastward flow across the South Indian Ocean is a remarkable aspect of the upper-ocean circulation because it flows against the westward direction from Ekman and Sverdrup theory for this region. The flow often appears as a set of distinct currents and jets. These currents have been detected in observations and simulated in some numerical models. However the underlying mechanisms driving the eastward surface currents and their eventual interaction with the Leeuwin Current and downwelling against the coast remains unclear. Furthermore, they appear to be linked to the Indonesian Throughflow and Southern Ocean water masses formed south of Australia. Our primary goal in this work is to make new observations of the physical and biogeochemical structure of the eastward flows in the region between existing observations and the Australian coast, where their fate is unknown. This region is filled with energetic eddies generated by the Leeuwin Current. Our observations will also provide insight into the nature of the interaction of these eddies with the circulation and productivity of the interior Indian Ocean. Dynamical understanding of the Indian Ocean circulation is central to the outstanding problem in ocean climate projections of correctly including surface processes to project the spatial patterns of heat uptake, steric sea-level rise, and storage of carbon dioxide. |