STACS-11

This experiment produced 24 current meter records from 4 moorings. You can view metadata and download the records by clicking on links in the table below, where each record is identified by its depth and the name of the mooring. If you do download any of the current meter records you should review the note on file format. A brief description of the experiment is available here, and you may also want to look at a map of the array to see where the moorings were. From here you can also go back to STACS-10.

All of the STACS-11 time series are filtered and have a time increment of 12 hours. The diurnal tides and all higher frequencies have been removed. The original unfiltered files may be available from the PI's.

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The STACS-11 moored current meter array consisted of three subsurface taut-wire moorings deployed in September 1989, spanning the continental slope off northeastern Brazil (see map; a vertical section also is available). The two deepest moorings, in approximately 2040 m and 3420 m water depth, were recovered in January 1991 after collectiong data for over 16 months. The shallowest mooring, in approximately 480 m water depth, was recovered in September 1990 to minimize biofouling of the upper instruments, and was redeployed for an additional year.

Mean currents over the upper continental slope (Moorings 253 and 274) were directed northwestward and were concentrated in the upper 150 m, with annual mean speeds of 60 to 80 cm/sec, indicating that most of the flow in the North Brazil Current is carried in near-surface layers in and above the thermocline. Over the mid-slope (Mooring 254) the near-surface flow was also northwestward in the mean, but weaker and less surface-intensified, with rotation to a more northerly direction below approximately 150 m depth. Significant mean currents also occured near the bottom at this site, directed to the southeast, with annual mean speeds at both 1400 m and 1800 m of nearly 20 cm/sec. These records show an intense, tightly-confined Deep Western Boundary Current transporting North Atlantic Deep Water at this location. Deep mean flows at the offshore site (Mooring 262) were generally insignificant and were dominated by low-frequency variability, as were the flows near 800 m depth on Mooring 254.

Related publications

Zantopp R.J., W.E.Johns and T.N.Lee (1993): Moored current meter observations off northeast Brazil (STACS-11 Array). University of Miami RSMAS Technical Report 93-005, 56 pp.

Johns, W.E., D.M. Fratantoni and R.J. Zantopp (1993): Deep western boundary current variability off northwestern Brazil. Deep-Sea Res., 40(2), 293-310.

Johns, W.E., T.N. Lee, R.C. Beardsley, J. Candela, R. Limeburner and B. Castro (1998): Annual cycle and variability of the North Brazil Current. J. Phys. Oceanog., 28(1), 103-128.

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