Measuring and Modelling the INdonesian Throughflow International Experiment (MINTIE): an International Collaborative Study
Mooring deployment operations.
CSHOR’s Indo-Pacific inter-basin exchange project and the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS) will lead Australian involvement in an exciting new international collaborative study of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF).
MINTIE will enhance understanding of the oceanic processes in the Indonesian region. The international MINTIE observational effort is a novel combination of a three-year deployment of a transport and water mass resolving mooring array within the major ITF passages and simultaneous observations from profiling and mixing floats in the interior seas. These observations, commencing in 2020, and a series of high-resolution model simulations will be used to investigate the drivers and dynamics of the ITF.
MINTIE international partners include Australia, the United States, China, and Indonesia. CSHOR and IMOS will contribute floats, moorings and high-resolution modelling capability to this international study.
Schematic of major circulation pathways along the route from the North and South Pacific to the Indian Ocean. As water from the Pacific warm pool (red region) flows to the Indian Ocean it is cooled by ocean and atmospheric processes (arrows with changing red shade) and by forcing from the Indian ocean (black wave arrow). Major regional features are identified; Halmahera Sea HS, Lifamatola Passage LP, Ceram Sea CS.