Project information
Project aim
Project title: "MODELLING THE FORMATION AND SUBDUCTION OF SUB-ANTARCTIC MODE WATER IN THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BASIN" This project will use an ocean general circulation model with a regionally compressed but not eddy-resolving computational grid to study the physical and dynamic processes contributing to the formation and subduction of Sub-Antarctic Mode Water in the South Australian Basin and south east Indian Ocean. The study will investigate the possibility that this water mass is formed as a result of the mixing of waters of the Southern Ocean and East Australian Current and is subducted in an unstable plume maintained by thermobaricity and advected westward into the south east Indian Ocean by subsurface currents. The results of simulations will be compared with data from oceanographic cruises.