New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
The East Auckland Current, 1994-95
BASIL R. STANTON
PHILIP J. H. SUTTON
STEPHEN M. CHISWELL
New Zealand Oceanographic Institute
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric
Research Ltd
P. O. Box 14 901, Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract The East Auckland Current (EAUC) was investigated in
1994-95 using data from three CTD surveys (conductivity, temperature, depth)
and moored current meters. The strength and position of the EAUC was found to
be highly variable with most of the current re-circulating around an
anticyclonic eddy north-east of North Cape--the North Cape Eddy. The position
and intensity of this eddy changed resulting in complex flow patterns with a
south-east flowing EAUC not always present as a contiguous feature. The current
meter data showed a high level of mesoscale variability with low spatial
coherence, suggesting that the along shore correlation length scale was c. 100
km in this current system. Near North Cape, a persistent but variable
counter-current was found inshore of the EAUC. To the south-east a permanent
anticyclonic East Cape Eddy found north of East Cape appears to dominate the
flow field and the genesis of the East Cape Current.
Keywords East Auckland Current; North Cape Eddy; East Cape
Eddy; currents; volume transports
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1997, Vol. 31:
537-549
0028-8330/97/3104-0537 $7.00/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand
1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (1266K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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