Features of physical oceanography in the oceans near the Prydz Bay during the 1998/1999 austral summer

1Introduction The Prydz Bay has its open water in the northadjacent to the Indian Ocean sector of the SouthernOcean.It borders on the ice shelf to its south,andthe Antarctic Continent to its east and west.It is thelargest water stretching southward into t…

Features of physical oceanography in the oceans near the Prydz Bay during the 1998/1999 austral summer

Thermohaline features, spatial extensions, and depths of the antarctic circumpolar deep water, the antarctic bottom water, and the upper layer water near the Prydz Bay (including the Prydz Bay summer surface water, the antarctic winter water, and the Prydz Bay shelf water) are analyzed and studied by use of the full depth CTD data obtained in the Southern Ocean near the Prydz Bay during the 1998/1999 austral summer. The northward extension of the shelf water, the thickness of the temperature inversion layer, the minima in the vertical temperature profile and the vertical temperature gradient are interpreted. On the basis of analysis of gravitational potential field, the geostrophic current and the geostrophic volume transport are calculated to determine the location of the strongest current in the zonal circulation near the Prydz Bay and to find the spatial variability of the volume transport in the 64°～66.5°S zone. In addition, the central location, the frontal strength, the vertical depth and thickness of the continental water boundary (CWB) are estimated from the CTD data to expound the spatial variability of CWB in the study area (64°～66.5°S,70°～75°E).