This experiment produced 35 current meter records from 5 moorings, each of which was occupied twice. You can view metadata and download the records by clicking on links in the table below. A brief description of the experiment also is available. Each current meter record is identified in the table by its depth and the name of the mooring. You may want to look at a map of the array first to see where the moorings were. If you download any of the current meter records you should review the note on file format. From here you can also move up one level to the list of WOCE experiments.
Note that each of the 5 moorings was occupied twice - Phases 1 and 2. In some cases the Phase 1 and Phase 2 current records are nearly (but not quite) contiguous. In others the gap between the two deployments is significant.
Return to top of page.
Vitiaz Strait acts as a choke point for a western boundary current
that carries water equatorward along the northeastern coast of
New Guinea. This is a significant current, with transports that
sometimes approach 20 sv. The present experiment was designed
to extend the spatial and temporal resolution of earlier measurements
in the strait that established the existence and strength of this
current.
PCM15 went forward in two phases. The first phase began in February
1992; Aanderaa and Endeco current meters were installed on 5 moorings
spanning the Vitiaz Strait (see map).
This produced 14 useful current records of varying lengths. During the
second phase, which began in July 1992, the moorings were revisited and
replaced. The second set of instruments was recovered during April 1993,
and produced 21 useful current records.
Some results of an analysis of the data can be found in
Return to top of page.
These files have been compressed with the ZIP compression utility.
After downloading them, you will need to expand them. WinZip or Pkzip
will do the job on a PC that is running Microsoft Windows. Under Linux,
gunzip will expand these files. Other utilities are available for the
UNIX and Macintosh environments (for example, unzip and/or gunzip are
present on most UNIX systems). After expansion, you will have binary
files in the netCDF format.
netCDF is a self-documenting format that can be accessed by a variety
of software tools. You can click here
to learn about netCDF and available software packages that can be used
to read and manipulate netCDF files.
Return to top of page.
mooring instr depth instr type dates metadata download
M1, Phase 1
40 meters
Endeco 174
26 Feb 92 - 20 May 92
view metadata
download record
M1, Phase 1
148 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 15 Jun 92
view metadata
download record
M1, Phase 1
400 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 16 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M1, Phase 2
40 meters
Endeco 174
27 Jul 92 - 15 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M1, Phase 2
121 meters
Aanderaa RCM
25 Jul 92 - 13 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M1, Phase 2
400 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 03 Dec 92
view metadata
download record
M2, Phase 2
40 meters
Endeco 174
26 Jul 92 - 14 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M2, Phase 2
132 meters
Aanderaa RCM
24 Jul 92 - 11 Feb 93
view metadata
download record
M2, Phase 2
227 meters
Aanderaa RCM
24 Jul 92 - 18 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M2, Phase 2
399 meters
Aanderaa RCM
24 Jul 92 - 04 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M2, Phase 2
600 meters
Aanderaa RCM
24 Jul 92 - 11 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 1
134 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 16 Jun 92
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 1
224 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 14 Jun 92
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 1
405 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 03 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 1
654 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 12 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 1
801 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 03 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
40 meters
Endeco 174
28 Jul 92 - 14 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
125 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 10 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
229 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 11 Feb 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
399 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 16 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
598 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 17 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M3, Phase 2
794 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 11 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 1
39 meters
Endeco 174
26 Feb 92 - 19 May 92
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 1
120 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 08 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 1
600 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 14 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 2
118 meters
Aanderaa RCM
25 Jul 92 - 07 Feb 93
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 2
238 meters
Aanderaa RCM
29 Jul 92 - 13 Feb 93
view metadata
download record
M4, Phase 2
389 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Jul 92 - 14 Mar 93
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 1
36 meters
Endeco 174
26 Feb 92 - 20 May 92
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 1
153 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 11 Jun 92
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 1
400 meters
Aanderaa RCM
26 Feb 92 - 16 Jul 92
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 2
31 meters
Endeco 174
28 Jul 92 - 13 Apr 93
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 2
148 meters
Aanderaa RCM
01 Aug 92 - 24 Feb 93
view metadata
download record
M5, Phase 2
400 meters
Aanderaa RCM
25 Jul 92 - 30 Nov 92
view metadata
download record
Description of WOCE component PCM15
Murray, S., E. Lindstrom, J. Kindle and E. Weeks (1995): Transport
through the Vitiaz Strait. WOCE Notes, 7(1), 21-23.
Format of the current records