Observing interactions between winds, waves, currents and ice

Brief description and intermediate results

Waves in the Southern Ocean are the biggest on the planet. Thus, they exert extreme stresses on the coastline of Sub-Antarctic Islands and the Antarctic sea ice cover. Because of the lack of field data, wave models are not well calibrated and perform poorly in the Southern Ocean, undermining our current understanding of these delicate ocean and coastal environments and our ability to protect them. This project aims at producing a unique set of wind, wave, and surface current data using state-of-the-art marine radar technology.

Instrumentation was installed on the research vessel and collected data throughout the entire expedition. The measurements are complemented by data from numerical waves-in-ice models and satellite observations of sea ice. The database is used to model the complex wave physics in the Southern Ocean and to calibrate and validate available wave forecasting models.

 

 

Alessandro Toffoli

University of Melbourne, Australia

 

Metocean properties of the Sub-Antarctic and Antarctic waters: winds, waves, currents, ice, and their interactions

 

• University of Adelaide (Australia)
• Coastal Marine Technology (South Africa)
• German Aerospace Center, DLR (Germany)