eNews

#05 2024

Towards developing a comprehensive backbone observing system for the Agulhas Current

By Riesna R. Audh, Jordan van Stavel and Tamaryn Morris, SAPRI

The Agulhas Current Observing System Design workshop, held at the President Hotel in Cape Town from 9–12 September 2024, brought together experts from research, industry and early-career researchers to develop a comprehensive backbone observing system for the Agulhas Current. 

The workshop aimed to facilitate collaboration among diverse stakeholders to better understand and monitor this crucial western boundary current, which plays a significant role in regional and global climate.

Participants of the Agulhas Boundary Current Observing System Workshop held at The President Hotel, Cape Town.

The Agulhas Current region illustrates the regional connectivity of source regions in the Mozambique Channel and south of Madagascar, and the leakage of warm and salty waters into the South Atlantic through Agulhas Rings.

Participants discussed current gaps in observations, identified potential new technologies for data collection and brainstormed strategies for long-term monitoring and sustainability. The workshop provided a platform for sharing knowledge, fostering interdisciplinary partnerships and ensuring that young researchers are integrated into the design and implementation of this observing system. To this end, a poster session was held to highlight the work young researchers are undertaking in the Agulhas Current region using ocean observing technologies and how they envisage using such technologies as a way forward.

This platform was an excellent way of showing ideas, but also allowing young researchers to engage with one another and with prospective advisors and employers in the marine science space.

Students presenting their work at the Agulhas Current Observing Design workshop. From left: Nasreen Burgher, University of Cape Town (UCT) and SAEON; Lisa Hancke, CLS–Southern Africa and Nelson Mandela University; Philile Mvula, UCT and SAEON; and Caroline Sejeng, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and UCT.

Highlights 

Highlights from the workshop included key discussions on observational needs within the Agulhas Current region, not only for the sake of scientific understanding of the system and to validate dynamic models, but also to benefit users of the system such as fisheries and search and rescue teams who were in attendance. Challenges were identified in terms of the processes needing to be studied in greater detail, technology and means of deploying these into arguably the most powerful western boundary current in the Southern Hemisphere and the possible solutions to try to map a way forward.

A comprehensive workshop report is envisaged to be produced by the end of November, which will highlight a backbone ocean observing system for the Greater Agulhas Current region and a way forward in terms of stakeholder engagements, technical and scientific outputs and a white paper to present to funders. The emphasis needs to be on collaboration, societal benefit and a multidisciplinary approach to tackle this complex boundary current system.

Acknowledgements  

The event was co-sponsored by NRF-SAEON, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency of the United States (NOAA), the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research of the US (UCAR), the UN Ocean Decade Decadal Coordination Centre for Ocean Climate Nexus (DCC–OCC); the Partnership for Observation of the Global Ocean (POGO) and the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS) Co-Design Program.