Southeast Asia Oceanography

I am interested in better defining the magnitude and variations of the Pacific to Indian Ocean throughflow within the Indonesian Seas, which are considered to be key elements in the thermohaline balance of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and perhaps to the global climate system. I also wish to improve our understanding of the source waters of the throughflow and of the mixing processes that alter the stratification enroute through the Indonesian Seas. These goals are met within the Arlindo Project, a joint oceanographic research endeavor of Indonesia and the United States. The specific objectives of the present phase of Arlindo research are to resolve the Indonesian throughflow velocity field and the mass, heat and freshwater fluxes across the central passages Makassar and Lifamatola Passage of the Indonesian Seas to obtain a multi-year time series of the thermohaline stratification to design and implement a strategy for throughflow monitoring to enable study of the oceanographic conditions within the Indonesian Seas and interocean exchange at time scales of ENSO cycles.