Oceanic sound channels around New Zealand

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Abstract
Configuration of major sound channels in the ocean around New Zealand is derived from the temperature and salinity data available from the region between latitudes 28°S and 56°S and between 158°E and 174°W. The “SOFAR channel” is established throughout the area northwards of the Antarctic Convergence, with its axis in a depth of about 1,300 m. Little variation in the depth of this axis was found except in the southern part of the subantarctie zone, where the weak vertical temperature stratification cannot maintain a velocity minimum; the axis of the SOFAR channel tends to decrease in depth as it loses its identity. In the northern part of the subantarctie region, a second channel was found at a depth of about 100 m. The depth of the axis of this “subantarctie channel” increases to about 500 m under the surface outcrop of the Subtropical Convergence. It loses its identity at about 400 m in the stronger vertical temperature stratification of the subtropical region. To the south of the Antarctic Convergence, an “antarctic channel” was found with its axis at a depth of some 400 m in a temperature inversion between Antarctic Winter Water and the underlying Pacific Deep Water. Sound velocity on the surfaces defined by the channel axes is mapped. A ridge of maximum SOFAR velocity is defined extending east and west of the northern part of New Zealand. This feature does not seem to appear in the north Pacific and has been tentatively associated with the dynamics of east‐flowing subtropical currents in this region.

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