HR: 0800h
AN: OS31A-0560    [Abstracts]
TI: Transport and high silica of the South Equatorial Current in the Indian Ocean: the deep Indonesian throughflow
AU: * Talley, L D
EM: ltalley@ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0230 United States
AU: Sprintall, J
EM: jsprintall@ucsd.edu
AF: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093-0230 United States
AB: In the Indian Ocean, the narrow westward flow of the South Equatorial Current (SEC) carries waters from the Pacific modified through mixing in the Indonesian Seas. The maximum density of these waters in the eastern Indian Ocean corresponds to the sill density at Leti Strait and Ombai Straits and spreads to higher densities as it is diluted towards the west. The high silica of the Indonesian Intermediate Water is traced to high silica within the Banda Sea. High silica in the Banda Sea is mainly due to diapycnal mixing of Pacific waters that enter through Lifamatola Strait and possible local sources that are assumed to be hydrothermal in origin. The transport of the SEC between densities sigma1 = 31.5 to 32.2 (neutral density 27.12 to 27.76) is 3 to 7 Sv westward, yielding a total ITF transport of about 15 Sv, which corresponds to the Pacific inflow to the Indonesian seas at Makassar and Lifamatola Straits.
DE: 4528 Fronts and jets
DE: 4532 General circulation
DE: 4536 Hydrography
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting