HR: 13:40h
AN: OS33D-01    [Abstracts]
TI: Northwest Australian Shelf Dynamics Experiment: Along-Shelf Flow
AU: * Brink, K H
EM: kbrink@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mail Stop 21 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institition, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Bahr, F
EM: fbahr@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Mail Stop 21 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institition, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Shearman, R
EM: shearman@coas.oregonstate.edu
AF: College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 United States
AB: During June-July 2003, shelf and slope physical processes off northwestern Australia were the focus of a one-month cruise. The experiment was designed to study the effects of evaporative densification over the shelf (see Shearman et al. abstract) and the relation of shelf edge currents to the poleward Leeuwin current. Sampling approaches included a broad-scale CTD survey, SeaSoar profiling, MiniBat profiling in shallower waters, underway acoustic current profiling and deployment of a shelf-edge current meter mooring. Shelf waters were found to be saltier than those offshore, and fresher water was found to the northeast. There was usually a shelf edge jet, although the direction varied. When it was poleward, it resembled the Leeuwin Current in magnitude and relative freshness. Repeated three-dimensional synoptic sampling near the shelf edge took place while an equatorward, bottom-trapped jet dominated at the shelf edge. The jet meandered with time, and so we suspect that the basic equatorward flow was unstable. The shelf edge processes in this area were unusual in that a bottom-trapped jet was found, but it appears that the upstream extension of the Leeuwin Current was observed at least on occasion
DE: 4219 Continental shelf processes
DE: 4516 Eastern boundary currents
DE: 4528 Fronts and jets
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting