Western Pacific international meeting and workshop on Toga Coare : proceedings

In September 1988, the RRS Charles Darwin carried out a survey of the western equatorial Pacific between 127°E and 160°E and between 7°N and 3°S. The main instruments used were an undulating SeaSoar, carrying a CTD, which gave temperature and salinity sections down to 250 m, an acoustic doppler current profiler which gave velocities down to 300 m and the IOS MultiMet system measuring surface fluxes. Data from the cruise is still being worked up. In this paper data from a long section made across the equator at 142°E between 7°N and 7°S is presented. The section is of interest because it shows up the importance of the salinity contrast between the more saline south equatorial current and the fresher north equatorial counter current. This contrast shows up in both the almost isothermal near surface waters and in the thermally more complex region of the undercurrent. (Résumé d'auteur