Circulation within the Wairarapa Eddy, New Zealand

The Wairarapa Eddy appears as a permanent anticyclonic eddy situated off the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand. In April 2001 a spatial survey of the eddy was made on a ship equipped with an Acoustic Doppler Cur-rent Profiler (ADCP). The absolute circulation at 100 m was estimated by objective mapping of the ADCP-derived velocities to produce a velocity field that has enforced non-divergence. Assuming that enforcing non-divergence produces the best estimate of the geostrophic flow, this velocity field can be used as a level of known motion to reference geostrophic velocities at other depths. In particular, it can be used to estimate the velocity at 2000 dbar, which is otherwise used in this region as a level of no motion. The resulting flow at 2000 dbar has a mean speed of 0.07 m s(-1), and appears to be well correlated with the surface flow.