Wind stress in the Australian coastal experiment region

Abstract

During the 6 months of the Australian Coastal Experiment (ACE), recordings were made by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology of several meteorological parameters at a number of coastal stations and by the CSIRO at several offshore locations to complement the ACE current-meter and sea-level gauge array. The aim was to examine the wind field over the New South Wales coast and so determine the magnitude of long shelf wind stress, which might locally force coastal trapped waves (CTW). Wind stress decreased equatorward, with the greatest potential for local CTW forcing lying on the southernmost continental shelf near Gabo Island. No significant variation in the magnitude of wind stress across the shelf within 20 km of the coast was observed. Despite the low sampling frequency at most coastai stations (twice daily, a subset of well-exposed coastal stations was sufficient to characterize the wind field over the entire region. The study revealed equatorward phase propagation of 9.2 and 12.1 m s^-1 at periods of 4.4 and 10.5 days respectively.