Wind forced changes and variability in the east Australian current

TL;DRAbstract

The waters off the coast of Tasmania have become gradually warmer and saltier over the past 60 years according to a coast station time series, with sea surface temperatures rising at a rate more than double the global average. I demonstrate that this is related to a strengthening and more southerly reach of the East Australian Current (EAC) extension. The station also shows a strong decadal timescale signal in temperature and salinity. In this thesis, I use a combination of the Maria Island time series and Tasman Box XBT sections, 50 year atmosphere and ocean state estimates, and idealised forcing experiments with a global ocean model to build a picture of how the EAC system is changing, and what is driving it. I find that changes at Maria Island are closely related to changes in the wind stress curl in the South Pacific, with Maria Island lagging the winds by 3 years. This propagation speed is too fast for 1st Mode baroclinic Rossby wave adjustment which would take 10-15 years, so a f

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