A most impressive feature stretches some 2800 miles from Australia to Asia—an array of islands, straits, and seas of various sizes and depths that incorporates the Indonesian and Philippine domains. This regional mix of land and ocean is located at the nexus of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Asian monsoon, where waters of the Pacific western boundary currents weave their way into the Indian Ocean. It is exposed to a monsoon climate and strong tidal activity, making this “mega” archipelago of the Southeast Asian seas a challenge to observe and to model. Because enhanced understanding of ocean dynamics within archipelago configurations is required to improve our capability to predict oceanic spatial and temporal variability, the Office of Naval Research sponsored the Philippine Straits Dynamics Experiment (PhilEx), a Department Research Initiative (DRI) for the Philippine region. PhilEx participants included US and Philippine researchers from numerous institutions, and integrated in situ and remote observational methods with global and regional model components.

Gordon, A.L., and C.L. Villanoy. 2011. The oceanography of the Philippine Archipelago: Introduction to the special issue. Oceanography 24(1):13, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2011.13.

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