In October 1987 and March 1988, measurements were taken across the Sah
ul shelf and the southwestern end of the Timor Strait to the edge of I
ndonesian waters. The shipboard instrumentation comprised a conductivi
ty-temperature-depth (CTD) rosette, an acoustic Doppler current profil
er (ADCP) and a Pegasus dropsonde. Complementary data came from satell
ite-tracked drifters, continental shelf moorings, and a Nansen bottle
survey in 1976. Pegasus and ADCP measurements in the strait suggested
a total transport of about 7 Sv toward the Indian Ocean, with about ha
lf of this in the upper 350 m. However, transports may at times be hig
her, because a drifter in July 1983 revealed speeds of 1 m s-1 in the
strait, twice those measured on the surveys. Data from moored current
meters implied a transport on the shelf of roughly 1 Sv, except in the
autumn transition of the monsoon in 1985 when it exceeded 3 Sv. Water
properties measured on the 1987 and 1988 surveys suggested components
from the Flores and Banda seas, Indian Ocean Central Water and a high
-salinity subsurface plume from evaporation on the inner Sahul shelf.