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East Coast water characteristics...

nelsonk's picture
nelsonk started the topic in
The Crystal Ball
 Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 1:19pm

Hey everyone,

I was just wondering why is that on the east coast (the gold coast specifically) a southerly wind swell seems to bring warm clear water and a northerly brings cold brown water.

Correct me if im wrong but that seems to be, loosely speaking, the typical water characteristics under those conditions.

Is it just a localised effect of the brisbane river, moreton bay, broadwater, nerang river etc etc to the north?

Any info would be awesome!

Thanks!

thermalben's picture
thermalben's picture
thermalben Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 2:59pm

Glad you asked NK! Here's an article I wrote on this topic back in 2006.

https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-analysis/2009/07/02/why-does-wate...

nelsonk's picture
nelsonk's picture
nelsonk Wednesday, 8 Jan 2014 at 3:50pm

Thanks man! Very cool! The mystery is solved. I feel a little annoyed as I covered ekman transport in a physical oceanography optional module at university.

We had a recent spell of abnormally low sea surface temps here for this reason.