Tasman Leakage of intermediate waters as inferred from Argo floats

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Rosell-Fieschi, M, Rintoul, SR, Gourrion, J, Pelegri, JL
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2013
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Physical Oceanography; Antarctic; Indian; Pacific; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL057797; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/94841

We use Argo float trajectories to infer ocean current velocity at the sea surface and 1000 dbar near Australia. The East Australian Current flows southward along the east coast of Australia at both surface and intermediate levels, but only the intermediate waters leak round the southern tip of Tasmania and cross the Great Australian Bight. We calculate the transport of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) between the southern Australian coast and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) as the velocity at 1000 dbar times the layer thickness. Between March 2006 and December 2012, the Eulerian AAIW transport through 147E ranges between 0 and 12.0 sverdrup (Sv). The mean Tasman Leakage of intermediate waters from the Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean, obtained using all Argo data until March 2013, is 3.8 1.3 Sv. The mean intermediate water transport into the Indian Ocean through 115E increases to 5.2 1.8 Sv due to contributions from the westward recirculation of ACC waters.