Transport calculations in the Tasman and Coral seas

Abstract

The inverse method ( Wunsch, Reviews of Geophysics and Space Physics, 16, 583–620, 1978) has been used to determine the flow for a closed-box region in the Tasman and Coral seas. The object of the study was to determine the large scale transport through the region, and in particular, to obtain an updated estimate of the amount of water carried by the East Australian Current. We conclude that there was no evidence of an East Australian Current in late March, 1960, when the only strong, identifiable feature was a cyclonic gyre in the CoralSea. As an East Australian Current has been identified at other times, the flow appears to be transient. A series of experiments testing various aspects of the use of the inverse method in such problems is also reported. Transports in the bottom layer are shown to be sensitive to noise and to the procedure adopted for extrapolating available data to the bottom, particularly in regions of large topographic variations. The importance of working with synoptic, as opposed to climatological, data is demonstrated by the experiments. It is also shown that local eddies can affect solution at relatively distant points.