Abstract
The continental shelf off South Australia is incised by some of the largest known
submarine canyons. Extensive observations of submarine canyons in other parts of the
world have shown submarine canyons can result in locally persistent upwelling regions.
Along the southern coastline, westward slope currents including anticyclonic eddies and
the Flinders Current (FC) can result in favourable conditions for upwelling in the vicinity
of these canyons. Little data is available to describe the FC and so we review three
global ocean circulation models and their representation of the FC. Though there are
considerable differences between the outputs of these three models, this analysis
provides a range of potential scales for the structure and transport of the FC. The
reasons for the differences between the output of the three models are extensive, but to
a first approximation, climatological surface wind stress products are compared.
Dynamical descriptions of the flow past submarine canyons are reviewed and in part
extended, in particular the vertical scale of the induced motion is estimated as the
Rossby height RH. A description of upwelling and downwelling flow incorporating
vorticity stretching is also presented. An idealised model of the southern Australian
continental shelf and the submarine canyons reveals the circulation is heavily modified
by the presence of the canyons, inducing persistent upwelling of dense water onto the
downstream shelf. In addition, one prominent feature of the induced circulation – a
coastal jet – is found to be peculiar to flat inner shelf topographies. More realistic
topography including a sloped inner shelf results in reduced shoreward transport within
the canyon and hence reduced upwelling.