The Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage as an orographic barrier for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

It is shown on the basis of the data of the Russian Academy of Sciences expeditions in 2003–2010, the historical CTD database, the WOCE climatology, and the satellite altimetry that the area of the Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage is even a greater significant orographic barrier for the eastward Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) than was previously thought. It is the current concept that this barrier is the most important for the ACC; it consists of three obstacles: the Hero Ridge with the Phoenix Rift, the Shackleton Ridge, and the North Scotia Ridge with the relatively shallow eastern part of the Scotia Sea. Despite the fact that all three obstacles are permeable for the layer of the Circumpolar Bottom Water (CBW; 28.16 < γ ⁿ < 28.26) being considered the lower part of the circumpolar water, the circulation in this layer throughout the Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage quite substantially differs from the transfer by the surface-intensified ACC jets. Herewith, the upper CBW boundary is the lower limit of the circumpolar coverage of the ACC jets. This result is confirmed by the near zero estimate of the total CBW transport according to the three series of the LADCP measurements on the sections across the Drake Passage. It is shown that the transformation (cooling and freshening) of the CBW layer, which occurs owing to the flow of the ACC over the Shackleton Ridge, is associated with the shape and location of the ridge in the Drake Passage. The high southern part of this ridge is a partially permeable screen for the eastward CBW transport behind which the colder and fresher waters of the Weddell Sea and the Bransfield Strait of the same density range as the CBW penetrate into the ACC zone. The partial permeability of the Shackleton Ridge for the CBW layer leads to the salinization of this layer on the eastern side of the ridge and to the CBW’s freshening on the western side of this ridge, which is observed across the entire Drake Passage.     

An analytical diagnostic model of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

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Chaotic and regular trajectories in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Methods from chaos theory are applied to the analysis of the circulation in the Southern Ocean, using velocity fields produced by a realistic global ocean model. We plot the intersections of individual trajectories encircling Antarctica with a vertical plane in the Drake passage. This so-called Poincaré section shows a drastic difference between regular trajectories in a core region of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), and chaotic, mixing trajectories in the surrounding region. It also shows that there is a region with overturning circulation of approximately 3.5 Sv in the ACC, with downwelling on the northern side and upwelling on the southern side, which may be related to the Deacon cell.     

南极绕极流线性理论的一个摄动解

为了模拟南极绕极流区的流动，首先将环形条带区从Drake海峡处分开，并展成以经纬度为坐标的矩形区域。将模拟区划分为边界区和内部区。与Munk的大洋环流理论不同．在我们所考虑的线性化的涡度方程中保留了经向摩擦作用。这是基于绕极流流轴处的强剪切产生的经向摩擦项与β效应同等重要的判断。另外．内部区的北边界取为流线，而2个侧边界区的北边界视为南北水体交换的通道。基于巴西暖流穿过北边界流入和秘鲁寒流穿过北边界流出，以及常年有大于100Sv(平均约134Sv)的水体自西向东穿过Drake海峡的观测事实，引入了净通量条件。计算出了不同于Sverdrup流的更集中的内部区带状流的流线分布，这与观测大体一致。在Drake海峡处引入匹配条件，从而得到了完整的边界解。计算结果与理论分析指出，通过Drake海峡的流量远小于南极绕极流所带动水体的纬向通量是因为Drake海峡偏离绕极流流轴(也是南大洋西风带的主轴)。受南美大陆的阻挡，另一部分水体通过秘鲁寒流流出该海区。     

Effects of partial meridional barriers on the Antarctic Circumpolar Current—Buoyancy-driven three-layer model

The transport and vertical structure of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) are examined, especially the component of the current driven by buoyancy, by using a three-layer model. We investigate the effects of the South American peninsula, the island arc to the east, and the Macquarie ridge, which are modeled as partial meridional barriers overlapping meridionally each other. We found that the buoyancy-driven component is given as a function of the transport out of the Weddell Sea (S _W ) and the sum of the transports into the North Atlantic (S _A ) and the North Pacific (S _P ) out of the Southern Ocean. The buoyancy-driven current flows westward, ifS _W andS _A +S _P are positive. The transport depends on the value ofS _W more thanS _A +S _P by one order of magnitude within a realistic range of parameters. The most predominant term in the transport equation is inversely proportional to the difference between the Coriolis parameters at the tips of the partial meridional barriers. Thus, the magnitude of the transport strongly depends on the overlapping length of the meridional barriers. The eastward current of the ACC is driven by the predominant eastward wind stress in the Southern Ocean, although a part of the wind-driven component is canceled by the westward buoyancy-driven component. The vertical structure of the ACC is found to be attributed to the surface wind-driven circulation and the deep and bottom buoyancy-driven circulation.     

Scleractinian Corals of the Arctic and High Latitudes of the North Atlantic Ocean

Oceanology - Only two species of scleractinian corals were found in the high latitudes of the Arctic Ocean west of the Barents Sea: Lophelia pertusa (Linné, 1758) and Flabellum macandrewi...     

Improving the estimate of wind energy input into the Ekman layer within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Based on the data and method offered by Liu et al. (2009), the direct wind and Stokes drift-induced energy inputs into the Ekman layer within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) area are reestimated since the results of the former have been proved to be underestimated. And the result shows that the total rate of energy input into the Ekman-Stokes layer within the ACC area is 852.41 GW, including 649.75 GW of direct wind energy input (76%) and 202.66 GW of Stoke drift-induced energy input (24%). Total increased energy input, due to wave-induced Coriolis-Stokes forcing added to the classical Ekman model, is 52.05 GW, accounting for 6.5% of the wind energy input into the classical Ekman layer. The long-term variability of direct wind and Stokes drift-induced energy inputs into the Ekman layer within the ACC is also investigated, and the result shows that the Stokes drift hinders the decadal increasing trend of direct wind energy input. Meanwhile, there is a period of 4-5 a in the energy spectrums, as same as the Antarctic circumpolar wave.     

Long-Term Linear Meridional Shift of the Jet Structure of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current South of Africa

Oceanology - The meridional shift of the absolute dynamic topography (ADT) gradient field structure in the zone of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) south of Africa (10° E–25°...     

The low-frequency variance of the ocean surface wave field in the area of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

The low-frequency variance of the surface wave in the area of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and its correlation with the antarctic circumpolar wave (ACW) are focused on. The analysis of the series of 44 a significant wave height (SWH) interannual anomalies reveals that the SWH anomalies have a strong periodicity of about 4-5 a and this signal propagates eastward obviously from 1985 to 1995, which needs about 8 a to complete a mimacircle around the earth. The method of empirical orthogonal function (EOF) is used to analyze the filtered monthly SWH anomalies to study the spatio-temporal distributions and the propagation characteristics of the low-frequency signals in the wave field. Both the dominant wavenumber-2 pattern in space and the propagation feature in the south Pacific, the south Atlantic and the south Indian ocean show strong consistency with the ACW. So it is reasonable to conclude that the ACW signal also exists in the wave field. The ACW is important for the climate in the Southern Ocean, so it is worth to pay more attention to the large-scale effect of the surface wave, which may also be important for climate studies.     

The Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front: physical and biological coupling at South Georgia

The coupling of physics and biology was examined along a 160 km long transect running out from the north coast of South Georgia Island and crossing the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF) during late December 2000. Surface and near surface potential TS properties indicated the presence of three water types: a near-shore group of stations characterised by water which became progressively warmer and fresher closer to South Georgia, an offshore grouping in which sea surface temperatures and those at the winter water level were relatively warm (1.8°C and 0.5°C, respectively), and a third in which surface and winter water temperatures were cooler and reflected the presence of the SACCF. The transect bisected the SACCF twice, revealing that it was flowing in opposite directions, north-westward closest to South Georgia and south-eastwards at its furthest point from the island. The innermost limb was a narrow intense feature located just off the shelf break in 2000–3500 m of water and in which rapid surface baroclinic velocities (up to 35 cm s⁻¹) were encountered. Offshore in the outermost limb, shown subsequently to be a mesoscale eddy that had meandered south from the retroflected limb of the SACCF, flow was broader and slower with peak velocities around 20 cm s⁻¹. Chlorophyll a biomass was generally low (<1 mg m⁻³) over much of the transect but increased dramatically in the region of the innermost limb of the SACCF, where a deepening of the surface mixed layer was coincident with a subsurface chlorophyll maximum (7.4 mg m⁻³) and elevated concentrations down to 100 m. The bloom was coincident with depleted nutrient concentrations, particularly silicate, nitrate and phosphate, and although ammonium concentrations were locally depleted the bloom lay within an elevated band (up to 1.5 mmol m⁻³) associated with the frontal jet. Increased zooplankton abundance, higher copepod body carbon mass and egg production rates all showed a strong spatial integrity with the front. The population structure of the copepods Calanoides acutus and Rhincalanus gigas at stations within the front suggested that rather than simply resulting from entrainment and concentration within the jet, increased copepod abundance was the result of development in situ. Estimates of bloom duration, based on silicate and carbon budget calculations, set the likely duration between 82 and 122 d, a figure supported by the development schedule of the two copepod species. Given this timescale, model outputs from FRAM and OCCAM indicated that particles that occurred on the north side of South Georgia in December would have been in the central-southern Scotia Sea 2–3 months earlier, probably in sea ice affected regions.     

Climatic variability of transport in the upper layer of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current from hydrological and satellite data

Based on the satellite altimetry dataset of sea level anomalies, the climatic hydrological database World Ocean Atlas-2009, ocean reanalysis ECMWF ORA-S3, and wind velocity components from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, the interannual variability of Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) transport in the ocean upper layer is investigated for the period 1959–2008, and estimations of correlative connections between ACC transport and wind velocity components are performed. It has been revealed that the maximum (by absolute value) linear trends of ACC transport over the last 50 years are observed in the date-line region, in the Western and Eastern Atlantic and the western part of the Indian Ocean. The greatest increase in wind velocity for this period for the zonal component is observed in Drake Passage, at Greenwich meridian, in the Indian Ocean near 90° E, and in the date-line region; for the meridional component, it is in the Western and Eastern Pacific, in Drake Passage, and to the south of Africa. It has been shown that the basic energy-carrying frequencies of interannual variability of ACC transport and wind velocity components, as well as their correlative connections, correspond to the periods of basic large-scale modes of atmospheric circulation: multidecadal and interdecadal oscillations, Antarctic Circumpolar Wave, Southern Annual Mode, and Southern Oscillation. A significant influence of the wind field on the interannual variability of ACC transport is observed in the Western Pacific (140° E–160° W) and Eastern Pacific; Drake Passage and Western Atlantic (90°–30° W); in the Eastern Atlantic and Western Indian Ocean (10°–70° E). It has been shown in the Pacific Ocean that the ACC transport responds to changes of the meridional wind more promptly than to changes of the zonal wind.     

Fronts, baroclinic transport, and mesoscale variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the southeast Indian Ocean

Fronts,baroclinic transport,and mesoscale variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current(ACC) along 115°E are examined on the basis of CTD data from two hydrographic cruises occupied in 1995 as a part of the World Ocean Circulation Experiment(WOCE cruise I9S) and in 2004 as a part of CLIVAR/CO2 repeat hydrography program.The integrated baroclinic transport across I9S section is(97.2×106±2.2×106) m3/s relative to the deepest common level(DCL).The net transport at the north end of I9S,determined by the south Australian circulation system,is about 16.5×106m3/s westward.Relying on a consistent set of water mass criteria and transport maxima,the ACC baroclinic transport,(117×106 ±6.7×10 6)m3/s to the east,is carried along three fronts:the Subantarctic Front(SAF) at a mean latitude of 44°-49°S carries(50.6×10 6 ±13.4×106)m3/s;the Polar Front(PF),with the northern branch(PF-N) at 50.5°S and the southern branch(PFS) at 58°S,carries(51.3×106 ±8.7×106)m3/s;finally,the southern ACC front(SACCF) and the southern boundary of the ACC(SB) consist of three cores between 59°S and 65°S that combined carry(15.2×106 ±1.8×106)m3/s.Mesoscale eddy features are identifiable in the CTD sections and tracked in concurrent maps of altimetric sea level anomalies(SLA) between 44°-48°S and 53°-57°S.Because of the remarkable mesoscale eddy features within the SAF observed in both the tracks of the cruises,the eastward transport of the SAF occurs at two latitude bands separating by 1°.Both the CTD and the altimetric data suggest that the mesoscale variability is concentrated around the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone(APFZ) and causes the ACC fronts to merge,diverge,and to fluctuate in intensity and position along their paths.     

Energy Exchange between Jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Synoptic Eddies in the Drake Passage and Scotia Sea

We study the energy exchange between jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and synoptic eddies generated by them in the surface layer of the ocean in the Drake Passage and Scotia Sea based on 22-year-long satellite altimetry time series from the French CLS Agency (DT Global–MADT–Upd product, http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr) under the assumption, based on observations, that each of the jets is confined between two fixed contour lines of the absolute dynamic topography of the ocean. We calculate and analyze the 22-year evolution of the kinetic energy of each ACC jet and cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies generated by it. We demonstrate the fundamental dependence of fluctuations in jet energy on the phase of their meander and eddy formation, as well as their back absorption by jets. We calculate the mean and extreme energetic characteristics of jets and eddies and compare the jets in terms of the intensity of the generated eddies.     

Energy of the Jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and of Their Eddies in the Surface Layer of the Southern Ocean

Oceanology - The kinetic energy of six jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and of the cyclonic and anticyclonic mesoscale eddies generated by these jets is studied in application to the...     

Interaction between Rossby Waves and a Jet Flow: Basic Equations and Verification for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics - Abstract—The article focuses on the interaction of Rossby waves in the ocean with zonal jet flows. A new approach is proposed to show that...     

Contributions to the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (A. C. C.) II. Integral relationship

Non-dimensional equations of motion are derived for the A.C.C. of the barotropic mode, including the bottom friction and the horizontal eddy viscosity. Integration of the vorticity equation along a streamline leads to the zeroth order stream function which is dependent only on depth divided by Coriolis parameter. Integration of the momentum equation along a streamline yields the relation between the momentum input by wind stress and its dissipation by the bottom friction and by the horizontal eddy viscosity. This relation determines the magnitude of the stream function. It explains differences in the total transport of the A.C.C. obtained byBryan andCox (1972), though it gives only one third of the total transport obtained byKamenkovich (1972) with his vertical eddy viscosity of 10²cm² s^?1. With 1 cm² s^?1 of this viscosity,Bryan andCox obtained the transport of about 650 or less than 32×10⁶m³s^?1 for constant or variable depth models, respectively. The higher transport is mainly due to broadening of the width of the A.C.C., whereas the lower value is due to its narrowing and meandering which in turn make the horizontal eddy viscosity more effective (by exercising friction on both sides of the A.C.C.) and the wind stress input smaller than the almost zonal streamlines for constant depth. In the Appendix dynamics of the bottom boundary layer is treated to give rational estimates of the bottom stress in terms of the geostrophic flow and is compared to the recent observations of the benthic boundary current in the Straits of Florida and off San Diego.     

CO2 in the Weddell Gyre and Antarctic Circumpolar Current: austral autumn and early winter

Quasi-continuous fugacity of CO₂ (fCO₂) data were collected in the eastern Weddell Gyre and southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) of the Southern Ocean during austral autumn 1996. Full depth Total CO₂ (TCO₂) sections are presented for austral autumn and winter (1992) cruises. Pronounced fCO₂ gradients were observed at the Southern Ocean fronts. In the Weddell Gyre, fCO₂ regimes appeared to coincide with surface and subsurface hydrographic regimes. The southern ACC was supersaturated with respect to CO₂, as was part of the northern Weddell Gyre. The southern Weddell Gyre was markedly undersaturated. The great potential of autumn cooling for generating undersaturation and CO₂ uptake from the atmosphere was demonstrated. In the northeastern Weddell Gyre, upwelling of CO₂- and salt-rich deep water was shown to play a role as the horizontal fCO₂ distribution closely resembled that of the surface salinity. The total uptake of atmospheric CO₂ by the Weddell Gyre in autumn (45 days) was calculated to be 7·10¹² g C. The deep TCO₂ distribution noticeably reflected the different water masses in the region. A new deep TCO₂ maximum was detected in the ACC, which apparently characterizes the boundary between the equatorward flowing Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) and the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). East of the Weddell Gyre, the AABW stratum is much thicker (>2000 m) than more to the west, on the prime meridian (<300 m).     

环境变化对造礁石珊瑚营养方式的影响及其适应性

造礁石珊瑚是珊瑚礁生态系统的框架生物,它们既能够通过共生藻的光合作用进行自养,也能够通过触手捕获和黏液吸附等方式进行异养。通过研究造礁石珊瑚光合自养以及异养营养的机理和过程,系统分析了光照、温度、营养盐、潮汐、水流、CO2质量浓度以及食物的可获得性等因素对造礁石珊瑚光合自养和异养营养产生的影响,并讨论了珊瑚的这2种营养方式对环境变化的适应性。在环境适宜的条件下,光合自养是健康造礁石珊瑚的主要营养方式;当珊瑚自养营养的供给受到限制时,异养营养能够在一定程度上弥补其营养缺失,甚至可能成为珊瑚的主要营养方式。造礁石珊瑚的2种营养方式能够对不同环境因素的变化做出不同响应,并通过两者之间的互补以适应环境变化。今后研究的重点应放在归纳各类因素对造礁石珊瑚2种营养方式的影响;深入研究造礁石珊瑚异养营养方式的规律与环境适应性;厘清造礁石珊瑚光合自养与异养营养之间的关系和协调模式。