SAMBA

Brief description of the TMA

The SAMBA is a combination of a western and an eastern subarray at about 34.5°S (see https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/SAMOC_international/ ).
Variations in the MOC have been connected to societally important quantities like hurricane intensification, sea level rise, and precipitation patterns. Analytical and numerical models suggest MOC variations in the South Atlantic are crucial for the overall stability of the MOC system. Observations of the MOC at this latitude will provide basin scale meridional transport of mass, heat and salt.

Figure 1: Mooring locations of SAMBA along 34.5°S in 2009 and 2019

Data products: volume transport time series

Fig. 2: Time series (temporal anomaly relative to the record‐length mean) of the basin‐wide MOC volume transport across 34.5°S. The total (net) transport anomaly is shown in black. The record‐length mean total MOC value that has been removed to create the anomaly is noted on the figure. Also shown are the contributions of Ekman, geostrophic reference flow, and geostrophic relative flow components; the geostrophic relative and reference flow components are further broken down into the contributions from variations in the western and eastern density or pressure contributions, respectively. For all components, the “contribution” is estimated as the difference between the total MOC (black line) and the MOC calculated while holding the term in question constant (i.e., the reference contribution is the difference between the total MOC and the MOC that was calculated holding the bottom pressure values on both sides of the basin constant). From Meinen et al., GRL, 2018, doi: 10.1029/2018GL077408.

Transport data (Note that different from the other TMAs these are transport anomalies!) can be downloaded here

Meinen, C. S., S. Speich, A. R. Piola, I. Ansorge, E. Campos, M. Kersale, T. Terre, M.-P. Chidichimo, T. Lamont, O. T. Sato, R. C. Perez, D. Valla, M. van den Berg, M. Le Henaff, S. Dong, and S. L. Garzoli, (2018). Meridional overturning circulation transport variability at 34.5°S during 2009–2017: baroclinic and barotropic flows and the dueling influence of the boundaries. Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 4180–4188. doi: 10.1029/2018GL077408

The MOC data from the Meinen et al. (2013) paper can also be downloaded from the “Data Access” page at: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/SAMOC_international/

The continuous travel time and bottom pressure data from the individual NOAA PIES instruments in the western array are also available at
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/research/moc/samoc/sam/data_access.php, as is a subset of the western boundary hydrography data. The raw NOAA PIES data have been archived at NOAA NCEI. Data for the other individual instruments in SAMBA can be obtained by request from the lead scientists within each participating country.

How to Acknowledge/Cite:

SAM Project Data:
Data from the Southwest Atlantic MOC project are made freely available to the public. Project scientists would appreciate it if you added the following acknowledgment to any publications that use these data: "Data from the Southwest Atlantic MOC project (SAM) are funded by the DOC-NOAA Climate Program Office - Ocean Observation and Monitoring Division and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. These data are freely available via the http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/research/moc/samoc/sam/ web page."

SAMBA Data:
MOC transport data from the South Atlantic MOC Basin-wide Array (SAMBA) is made freely available to the public at: https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/SAMOC_international/ . If you use data from SAMBA, please make sure to cite the Meinen et al. (2018) publication as it contains the appropriate credit for all of the data producers in the Acknowledgements.

Observation Period	2009 – ongoing
Observed quantities	Temperature, salinity, velocity
Current funding source / end of funding	NOAA, USP, SHN, UCT/DEA, ENS/IFREMER / 2020

Meinen, C. S., A. R. Piola, R. C. Perez, and S. L. Garzoli, Deep Western Boundary Current transport variability in the South Atlantic: Preliminary results from a pilot array at 34.5°S, Ocean Sci., 8, 1041-1054, doi:10.5194/os-8-1041-2012, 2012.

Meinen, C. S., S. Speich, R. C. Perez, S. Dong, A. R. Piola, S. L. Garzoli, M. O. Baringer, S. Gladyshev, and E. J. D. Campos, Temporal variability of the meridional overturning circulation at 34.5°S: Results from two pilot boundary arrays in the South Atlantic, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 118, 6461-6478, doi:10.1002/2013JC009228, 2013.

Ansorge, I. J., M. O. Baringer, E. J. D. Campos, S. Dong, R. A. Fine, S. L. Garzoli, C. S. Meinen, R. C. Perez, A. R. Piola, M. J. Roberts, S. Speich, J. Sprintall, T. Terre, M. A. Van de Berg, Basin-Wide Oceanographic Array Bridges the South Atlantic, EOS, 95, 53-54, doi:10.1002/2014EO060001, 2014.

Garzoli, S.L., S. Dong, R. Fine, C. Meinen, R.C. Perez, C. Schmid, E. van Sebille, and Q. Yao, The fate of the Deep Western Boundary Current in the South Atlantic, Deep-Sea Res. I, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2015.05.008, 2015.

Meinen, C.S., S.L. Garzoli, R.C. Perez, E. Campos, A.R. Piola, M.P. Chidichimo, S. Dong, and O.T. Sato. Characteristics and causes of Deep Western Boundary Current transport variability at 34.5°S during 2009-2014, Ocean Sci., 13(1):175-194, doi:10.5194/os-13-175-2017, 2017.

Meinen, C. S., S. Speich, A. R. Piola, I. Ansorge, E. D. Campos, M. Kersale, T. Terre, M. P. Chidichimo, T. Lamont, O. T. Sato, R. C. Perez, D. Valla, M. Le Henaff, S. Dong, and S. L. Garzoli, Meridional overturning circulation transport variability at 34.5°S during 2009–2017: baroclinic and barotropic flows and the dueling influence of the boundaries, Geophys. Res. Lett. 45, 4180–4188. doi: 10.1029/2018GL077408, 2018.

Kersale, M., Lamont, T., Speich, S., Terre, T., Laxenaire, R., Roberts, M.J., van den Berg, M.A., Ansorge, I., Moored observations of mesoscale features in the Cape Basin: Characteristics and local impacts on water mass distributions, Ocean Sci., 14(5),923-945, doi:10.5194/os-2017-85, 2018.

Valla, D., A. R. Piola, C. S. Meinen, and E. J. D. Campos, Strong mixing and recirculation in the northwestern Argentine Basin, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 123, 4624-4648, doi: 10.1029/2018JC013907, 2018.

Frajka-Williams, E., I.J. Ansorge, J. Baehr, H.L. Bryden, M.P. Chidichimo, S.A. Cunningham, G. Danabasoglu, S. Dong, K.A. Donohue, S. Elipot, N.P. Holliday, R. Hummels, L.C. Jackson, J. Karstensen, M. Lankhorst, I. Le Bras, M.S. Lozier, E.L. McDonagh, C.S. Meinen, H. Mercier, B.I. Moat, R.C. Perez, C.G. Piecuch, M. Rhein, M. Srokosz, K.E. Trenberth, S. Bacon, G. Forget, G.J. Goni, P. Heimbach, D. Kieke, J. Koelling, T. Lamont, G. McCarthy, C. Mertens, U. Send, D.A. Smeed, M. Van den Berg, D. Volkov, and C. Wilson, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation: Observed transports and variability, Front. Mar. Sci., 6:260, doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00260 2019.

Kersale, M., R.C. Perez, S. Speich, C.S. Meinen, T. Lamont, M. Le Henaff, M.A. van den Berg, S. Majumder, I.J. Ansorge, S. Dong, C. Schmid, T. Terre, and S.L. Garzoli, Shallow and deep eastern boundary currents in the South Atlantic at 34.5°S: Mean structure and variability, J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 124(3):1634-1659, doi:10.1029/2018JC014554, 2019.

Valla, D., A.R. Piola, C.S. Meinen, and E. Campos, Abyssal transport variations in the southwest South Atlantic: First insights from a long-term observation array at 34.5°S, Geophys. Res. Lett., 46(12):6699-6705, doi:10.1029/2019GL082740, 2019.