An artist's impression of the Topex/Poseidon ocean-observing satellite launched in 1992
Cold water eddy 'monsters' mighty current off Sydney
In this six-minute podcast Dr David Griffin, from the Wealth from Ocean's Flagship, explains how a huge dense eddy was the reason the sea was so cold off the coast of NSW this summer. (6:23)
- 16 March 2007 | Updated 24 November 2011
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Ocean eddies can have a life of 2-3 weeks although similar eddies identified off South Australia and Western Australia are known to have survived several months.
Its centre is about 100km directly offshore from Sydney reaching to a depth of more than 1000m, and 200km in diameter.
Dr Griffin, talks about how cold-water eddies regularly appear off Sydney and now that we can routinely identify them from space via satellite, marine scientists can evaluate their role as a source of life in the marine ecosystem.
Download images of Diagrams compiled from satellite data of the cold-water eddy off Sydney.
Read more about Cold-water-eddy-monsters-mighty-current-off-Sydney.
