Posted by Tom Lee on May 10, 2001 at 13:26:57:
Fascinating! Movies are a great way to view and get a feeling for the variability in the data set, as well as suggestive of processes that may be occurring. My quick look suggests the occurrence of eddies at different times on both sides of the current. Many times as the Agulhas meanders offshore a cyclonic eddy appears inshore, which suggests a frontal eddy carried to the south along the Agulhas inshore boundary. There also appears to be a significant equatorward undercurrent, although transient. I was surprized to see how rapidy the current structure changed. Sometimes between frames the Agulhas structure would disappear or suddenly jump offshore by 50 km. These changes seem to sudden to be real and may indicate that more smoothing should be applied to the data or there may have been some problem with the data at that time. I'm sure your looking for other types of data that can be used with the moored records to help explain these features, such as hydrographic sections, satellite imagery and altimetry.