The atmospheric ocean: eddies and jets in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

• Main Author: F. Thompson
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic Circumpolar Current; mesoscale eddies; zonal jets; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.385.5462; http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/people/aft26/publications/AFT_ACCJets.pdf

Although the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the longest and strongest oceanic current on Earth and is the primary means of inter-basin exchange, it remains one of the most poorly represented components of global climate models. Accurately describing the circulation of the ACC is made difficult because of the prominent role that mesoscale eddies and jets, oceanic equivalents of atmospheric storms and storm tracks, have in setting the density structure and transport properties of the current. The successes and limitations of different representations of eddy processes in models of the ACC are considered, with particular attention given to how the circulation responds to changes in wind forcing. The presence of energetic, filamentary jets all along the path of the ACC suggests that capturing spatially-variable eddy transport properties in numerical and theoretical models may be crucial for climate prediction.