Title Short-term observations of daily currents on the continental shelf and slope off Port Edward, along the east coast of South Africa at location P2 (December 2005 - April 2006)
Project Shelf Circulation Patterns off Port Edward
Authors

Gavin Louw
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Marine Scientific Technician 2nd Floor, Foretrust Building, Martin Hammerschlag Way, Cape Town, South Africa, glouw@environment.gov.za

Marcel van den Berg
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Marine Scientific Technician 2nd Floor, Foretrust Building, Martin Hammerschlag Way, Cape Town, South Africa, mvdberg@environment.gov.za

Tarron Lamont
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Marine Scientist 2nd Floor, Foretrust Building, Martin Hammerschlag Way, Cape Town, South Africa, tlamont@environment.gov.za

Publisher Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (2020)
Contributors

Contact Person: Gavin Louw
Oceans and Coastal Research, Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) Marine Scientific Technician 2nd Floor, Foretrust Building, Martin Hammerschlag Way, Cape Town, South Africa, mrgavinl@gmail.com

Abstract Between 2005 and 2015, multiple short-term studies were conducted to determine the characteristics of moorings deployed in a region heavily influenced by the strong Agulhas Current, and to examine circulation patterns across the continental shelf and slope off Port Edward, along the east coast of South Africa. Three moorings (P1, P2, and P3) were deployed, just south of Port Edward at depths of 36m, 64m, and 162m, respectively, between September 2005 and September 2006, to measure currents and bottom temperatures across the inner shelf. A further three moorings (P4, P5, and P6) were deployed off Port Edward over the period September 2010 to June 2015, at depths of 217m, 1060m, and 2000m, to measure currents and sub-surface temperatures across the outer shelf and slope. Here we present processed magnitude and direction of daily currents throughout the water column (13.53 - 65.53 m) from an ADCP at location P2 (31.19704°S; 30.17467°E) on the inner shelf off Port Edward, between 12 December 2005 and 10 April 2006.
Methods A bottom-mounted, upward-looking, 300 kHz RD Instruments Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) was configured with a bin size of 2 m and a blanking distance of 1.8 m, and deployed at location P2 (31.19704°S; 30.17467°E), on the inner shelf just south of Port Edward, along the east coast of South Africa. The instrument measured hourly magnitude and direction throughout the water column (13.53 - 65.53 m) between 12 December 2005 and 10 April 2006. 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
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Temporal extent 12 Dec 2005 – 10 Apr 2006
Geographic extent

Port Edward, South Africa

Lat: -31.19704
Lon: 30.17467

Vertical extent Max: -13.53 m
Min: -65.53 m
Keywords ADCP, continental shelf, continental slope, currents, INDIAN OCEAN, moorings, Port Edward, velocity
Related resources
  • This digital object continues Short-term observations of daily currents on the continental shelf and slope off Port Edward, along the east coast of South Africa at location P2 (September 2005 - December 2005) (10.15493/dea.mims.26052107)
  • This digital object is part of Short-term observations of currents and sub-surface temperatures on the continental shelf and slope off Port Edward, along the east coast of South Africa (10.15493/dea.mims.26052103)