Scientific and technical goals:

• Continue to enhance the ocean observing system off Southwest Africa aiming at studying the eastern boundary upwelling variability on time scales from subseasonal to decadal (GEOMAR, IOW, INIP, NatMIRC, Gobabeb).
  
  
• Investigate so far not well understood processes relevant for upwelling variability and its consequences for biological productivity, such as the interaction of along-coastal winds and wind curl (GEOMAR, IOW, UHH), tidally generated internal waves and induced mixing on the shelf (GEOMAR, IOW, INIP), riverine freshwater input and precipitation (UHH, INIP, GEOMAR) and frontal dynamics at the Angola Benguela frontal zone (GEOMAR, IOW, INIP, NatMIRC, UHH, UCT).
  
  
• Take part in three research cruises (GEOMAR, IOW) in order to maintain the long-term moorings at 23°S and 18°S and install additional ADCP at 23°S to cover the full surface Ekman layer.
  
  
• Synthesize high-resolution simulations, remote sensing of sea surface height, temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll, and in-situ observations to understand the exchange between boundary regions and the interior ocean and to understand the role of stratification within the boundary current region on the development of Benguela Niño events (UHH, UCT, INIP, NatMIRC, Gobabeb, IOW, GEOMAR).
  
  
• Investigate the impact of the changing Southeastern Tropical Atlantic Ocean mean state in its detailed structure on feedback processes (e.g., land-see pressure differences and coastal jets) and on Benguela Niño events with respect to their frequency, strength, location and impacts as well as their predictability (UHH, GEOMAR and UCT).
  
  
• Further develop the cooperation between German and African partner institutions by enhancing the local capabilities in ocean observing, modelling and data analysis (all partners).