| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | Western Boundary Currents, Eddies and Continental Shelf Processes |
| Main Convener | Prof. Ruoying He (North Carolina State University, United States) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Jianping Gan (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR) Prof. Moninya Roughan (University of New South Wales, Australia) |
| Session Description | Western Boundary Currents transport large volumes of warm water poleward and as such are a significant dynamical driver in ocean basins. In addition they have a profound physical, biogeochemical and ecological impact on adjacent continental shelf waters. WBCs and their eddy fields drive cross shelf exchange and thus have an influence on the productivity of coastal waters. In addition it has also been shown that WBCs are warming, strengthening, and increasing their poleward penetration faster than other less dynamic regions of the ocean. The western boundary currents of the Pacific Ocean: the Kuroshio and the East Australian Current (EAC) have many similarities (large volume flux, strong flow, and meso-scale eddy field) and some differences. The EAC dominates the circulation on the narrow continental shelf of southeastern Australia, while the Kuroshio interacts vigorously with topography and islands driving large scale flow perturbations downstream. By way of contrast, the broad continental shelf inshore of the Gulf Stream is strongly impacted by buoyancy forcing (fresh water outflow) and local wind forcing. In recent years significant investment has been made into ocean observing Systems (e.g IOOS in the USA and IMOS in Australia) both on and off the shelf. The new observations in the continental shelf regions, combined with numerical modelling efforts have provided new insights into the dynamics, structure and variability of these boundary currents and their impact on continental shelf regions. In this session we welcome a combination of modelling and observational studies of the physics and biogeochemistry of western boundary currents and their interactions on the continental shelves and shelf processes. |