ABSTRACT
Sea-level data were employed during WOCE to monitor flows through straits at locations other than the Southern Ocean. One group of papers concerned the Indonesian ThroughFlow. Arief & Murray (1996) investigated the particular relationship between Cilicap sea level and flow through Lombok Strait, which accommodates approximately a quarter of the throughflow, and concluded that Cilicap could be used to predict flows with a small lead. Molcard et al. (2001) compared 20 m depth currents in Ombai Strait with upstream sea-level data from Benoa during 1995-96 and concluded that Benoa level might be useable (given better quality gauges) as a proxy for the current. Bray et al. (1996) conducted a wider-area study combining sea-level and thermocline information and concluded that interannual variability in the throughflow depends on changes in deep as well as surface flows. Potemra et al. (1997) studied the large-scale pressure gradient forcing of throughflow using T/P data (previously validated using tide gauges) and found that the throughflow is controlled by sealevel changes on the Pacific side on interannual timescales and by a combination of Indian and Pacific Ocean processes on seasonal to annual timescales. Susanto et al. (2000) found that the intraseasonal (1-2 months period) variability of sea level in the Makassar Strait was a response to remotely forced Kelvin waves from the Indian Ocean progressing through Lombok Strait, together with Rossby waves from the Pacific Ocean. These several examples clearly demonstrate the importance to the international oceanographic community of good quality tide gauges located at strategic positions to monitor the Indonesian Through-Flow.
