New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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The Southland Current: a subantarctic current

Philip J. H. Sutton

National Institute of Water
 and Atmospheric Research Limited
P.O. Box 14 901, Kilbirnie
Wellington, New Zealand
email: p.sutton@niwa.co.nz

Abstract  The Southland Current is a northward flow of water along the south-east coast of New Zealand. This current has been studied many times since the early 1960s, with particular emphasis on an associated narrow coastal band of warm, salty water of subtropical origin, separated from offshore cold, fresh Subantarctic Water (SAW) by the Southland Front. Previous works on the Southland Current state that it advects modified warm, salty Subtropical Water (STW). This work quantifies the relative proportions of SAW and STW within the current. The Southland Current has a mean transport of 8.3 Sv comprising c. 90% SAW and 10% STW. The mean properties advected result from the current extending offshore of the Southland Front: in fact the core of the current is offshore of the Southland Front.

Keywords  Southland Current; Southland Front; Subtropical Front

M03004 Received 24 January 2003; accepted 24 April 2003; Published 5 August 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2003, Vol. 37: 645-652
0028-8330/03/3703-0645 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2003

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