Collaborative Research: Agulhas-South Atlantic Thermohaline Transport Experiment (ASTTEX)

A field experiment is proposed, which will provide multi-year time series of salt, heat, and mass transports from the Agulhas retroflection region into the South Atlantic subtropical gyre. The program will deploy inverted echo sounders, both with and without pressure sensors and near-bottom current meters. The in situ data will be complemented with satellite data, both SST and altimetry. Historical data will also be included in the data analysis. The success of the program is based substantially on a new technique, GEM-ETTA, for analyzing IES (inverted echo sounder) and PIES (pressure and inverted echo sounder) data. Analysis of the field data in conjunction with reanalysis of historical data will provide the first long-term time series of these inter-basin fluxes on interannual scales.