PMEL Programs and Plans
Accomplishments in FY 96 and Plans for FY 97
Transport of Ocean
Currents Project
 
Figures (a) Florida map showing locations of cables used for monitoring of
transports, and
(b) Time series of daily transport data from undersea cables.
M
onitoring Transport of Ocean Currents
Accomplishments in FY 96
The Boundary Current Measurements
project monitors variations in the transport of boundary currents. Ocean
currents such as the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio are major transporters of equatorial
heat to high latitudes. The transport of the Florida
Current (the major contributor to the Gulf Stream) has been monitored since
1982 using the cross-stream voltages detected using out-of-service and in-service
telephone cables across the northern end of the Straits of Florida (between West
palm Beach and the Bahamas) and, since 1990, using an out-of-service cable across
the southwesterne nd of the Straits (between key West and havana). This procedure
is a very inexpensive method for continuous long-term measurements of major ocean
current systems.
The robust
method to determine transfer functions used to remove the geomagnetic induced
voltages has been published. This method has been improved and made more
robust by using commercial magnetotelluric data contaminated by industrial noise
sources such as electrified railways. These data reduction methods have been
applied to the voltages collected between Taiwan and Okinawa which greatly improves
the accuracy of detecting the motionally induced voltages. The numerical simultaion
of the cable voltages using realistic oceanographic and geophysical models has
been completed and is being published.
Monitoring Transport of Ocean Currents
Plans for FY 97
- Reconfigure the West Palm Beach cable measurements when it becomes
an out-of-service cable.
- Continue Colaboration on cable voltages with Japan and Taiwan.
- Make plans for colaboration with a group in the
Canary Island for measuring voltages of the Canary Current
.
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