Interannual variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current strength based on merged altimeter data

• Published in: Chinese Science Bulletin
• Main Authors: Zhang LinLin, Sun Che, Hu DunXin, Sun, C (reprint author), Chinese Acad Sci, Key Lab Ocean Circulat & Waves, Inst Oceanol, Qingdao 266071, Peoples R China.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Acc Strength; Interannual Variability; Stream-coordinate; Altimetry; Westerly Wind; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Antarctic; Pacific; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://ir.qdio.ac.cn/handle/337002/12159; https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-012-5040-3

Interannual variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) strength is studied in stream-coordinate with twenty-year Absolute Dynamic Topography data from satellite altimetry. The stream-coordinate projection method separates the ACC from adjacent subtropical and subpolar gyres, enabling consideration of the zonal asymmetry of the ACC rather than assuming that the ACC is a purely zonal flow. It is shown that the ACC strength has large interannual variations with two recent peaks around 2000 and 2009. The interannual variability appears mainly in the Indo-Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean and the strongest signal is located south of Australia. The intensification of the westerly wind in 1998 and 2008 appears to cause the strengthening of the ACC via baroclinic processes.