Resources in Place
Some observation systems are already in place that can be used as building blocks for a trans-basin array.
- Boundary current measurement systems have been started on the western boundary (USA-NOAA, Argentina-SHN, Brazil-USP,Navy) and on the eastern boundary (France-Ifremer, South Africa-UCT) along 34.5S.
- Trans-basin expendable bathythermograph sections are collected quarterly (USA-NOAA) along 34.5S, with trans-basin conductivity-temperature-depth sections collected less frequently in the region of 25S-34.5S as well (USA-NOAA/NSF, United Kingdom, Brazil).
- A group of North and South American countries operating through the Intra-Americas-Institute for Climate Change Research (IAI) have a large shelf-monitoring program planned for the western boundary that complement well the western end of the trans-basin array (USA-MIT, USA-OSU, Argentina-SHN).
- Brazil (USP) has been funded to conduct hydrographic/mooring turn-over cruises and deploy inverted echo sounders equipped with bottom pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters, a bottom pressure recorder, and ADCP on the western boundary.
- France has been recently funded to deploy inverted echo sounders equipped with bottom pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters on the eastern boundary.
- South Africa funded an array measuring velocity on the eastern shelf that will greatly add to the measurements at that end of the line.
Other existing global in situ and satellite data sets will provide crucial information for analysis and attribution of the data from the recommended program.
- Germany (AWI) has an array of inverted echo sounders inverted echo sounders equipped with bottom pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters along the oblique Goodhope line.
- Several groups already collect additional hydrographic observations in the region that would be extremely valuable for analysis purposes (Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Spain, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States).
- The global observing system, particularly the ARGO float network, the global drifter array, and satellite observations of sea height, sea-surface temperature, sea-surface salinity (SMOS and Aquarius), and surface wind will also be crucial for analysis and attribution of signals observed by the moored system.