Title | Short-term observations of daily currents on the continental shelf off Natal Bight, along the east coast of South Africa at location RiB01 (September 2009 - February 2010) |
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Project | African Coelacanth Ecosystem Programme (ACEP) |
Authors |
Gavin Louw Marcel van den Berg Tarron Lamont |
Publisher | Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (2024) |
Contributors |
Contact Person: Marcel van den Berg |
Abstract | Between 2009 and 2013, multiple short-term mooring deployments were conducted to determine the oceanographic characteristics and variability along the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Bight, along the east coast of South Africa. One mooring (Sez01) was deployed off Sezela, about 79km south of Durban, at a depth of 30m, between June 2009 and July 2010. Three moorings (Dbn01, Dbn02, and Dbn03) were deployed off Durban at depths of 50m, 420m, and 570m, respectively, between January 2009 and September 2010, and two moorings (RiB01 and RiB02) were deployed off Richards Bay at depths of 30m and 580m, respectively, between February 2009 and September 2010. These moorings measured currents, as well as sub-surface and bottom temperatures across the continental shelf and along the continental slope of the KZN Bight. Here we present processed magnitude and direction of daily currents throughout the water column (13 - 27m) from an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) at location RiB01 (28.92°S; 32.06°E) on the continental shelf off Richards Bay, between September 2009 - February 2010. |
Methods | A bottom-mounted, upward-looking, 1200kHz RD Instruments Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was configured with a bin size of 2m and a blanking distance of 0.4m, and deployed at location RiB01 (28.92°S; 32.06°E), on the continental shelf of Richards Bay. The instrument measured hourly magnitude and direction throughout the water column (13 - 27m) between 29 September 2009 and 25 February 2010. These hourly values were corrected for magnetic declination, and then averaged to daily means for each depth bin. Only hourly values which showed ≥ 75% good beam data were used, and daily values were only generated for days on which there were 75% or more hourly readings. |
Data | |
Temporal extent | 29 Sep 2009 – 25 Feb 2010 |
Geographic extent |
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
North: -29.0 |
Vertical extent |
Max: -27 m Min: -13 m |
Keywords | ACEP III - Ecosystem Processes in the KwaZulu-Natal Bight, ADCP, currents, INDIAN OCEAN, moorings, temperature |
Related resources |
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