Indonesian Throughflow

1
Ocean time series at specific sites provide
information of the changing nature of the ocean,
which is of value to ocean/climate/marine
ecosystems research, industry, and government
the public communities. Ocean Sites, with other
observational groups, can help select key
specific areas, over see quality, disseminate
the data in a uniform format to the user
communities and evaluate the array. Here I
advocate a subset of specific areas that serve as
portals between oceans and gateways for surface
waters injection into the deep ocean, as part of
the global ocean overturning circulation.
x
x
X are time series sites that Arnold Gordon
Bruce Huber Lamont-Doherty operate, with
NOAA/OCO funding The X are other sites Portal
and Gateway Sites (that are or should be added to
the array) Solid lines are Choke Sections for
Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) time
series. These are a subset of many sites
included in the OceanObs09 reports
x
Indonesian Throughflow Makassar Strait, main
pacific inflow channel
x
X
x
Agulhas Leakage SAMOC
or
x
x
Weddell Sea Bottom Water
Ross Sea Bottom Water
See plenary and community white papers of
OceanObs09 http//www.oceanobs09.net/
2
Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) Inflow 14 Sv
outflow 15 Sv, 1 Sv imbalance over 3 years
noise level
Long time series potential
NOAA/OCO Mak ITF
gt1250 m overflow
200-2000 m
Karimata 1 Sv ?
Australian Integrated Marine Observing System
IMOS Indonesian Through Flow Moorings
15
Long time series potential
The italics numbers in black represent transport
values based on pre-INSTANT data. The red numbers
are the 2004-2006 3-year mean transports measured
by INSTANT. In Lifamatola Passage the green
number is the INSTANT overflow transport gt1250 m,
representing the overflow into the deep Seram and
Banda Sea
3
Something changed in 2007, peaked in 2008/09,
maybe decreasing in 2010
Shallower stronger, warmer Makassar throughflow
thermocline max thruflow
2004
2011
1997
Gordon, Huber, Metzger, Susanto, Hurlburt, Adi
South China Sea Throughflow Impact on the
Indonesian Throughflow WCRP Denver October 2011
4
500 m above bottom
Weddell Sea Bottom Water Time Series
x
sea floor
Temperature, benthic 500 m
Salinity, benthic 500 m
Bottom speed
Seasonal cycle High freq masks low freq?
Maintenance coordinated with UK BAS
Monthly bottom temperature
Gordon et al, 2010, Nature GeoSci McKee et al
2011, JGR-Ocean Meridith et al, 2011, GRL
warm
Interannual variability of Weddell Sea Bottom
Water correlates to SAM and ENSO no 10-year
trend apparent.
2006
cold
1999
Data set now extends to March 2011