Agulhas Current Variability and Loss of Water into the SE Atlantic Ocean in the Retroflection Region

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9617986 Rossby In this project, the PI will collaborate in a cooperative research effort to study the mid-depth circulation around South Africa and in the Southeastern Atlantic. Other collaborators are from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorology Laboratory, the Institute fur Meerskunde, in Kiel, Germany, and the University of Capetown, South Africa. The first objective is to use isopycnal RAFOS floats to determine pathways of dispersal from the Agulhas Current as it approaches the region where the current retroflects, and to determine the conditions under which waters recycle to the east. The second objective is to start a program of direct measurements of mass transport of the Agulhas Current off Durban, using a combination of velocity measurement (Global Positioning System with POGO) and hydrographic casts. POGO is a modern version of the dropsonde, used some two decades ago. This project will provide 50 RAFOS floats in the first year, and 4 POGO instruments in the second year.