Float observations of the Southern Ocean: Part I: Estimating mean fields, bottom velocities, and topographic

Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) floats are used to examine mean flow and eddy fluxes at 900-m depth in the Southern Ocean. Mean temperature and dynamic topography from float data are consistent with earlier estimates from hydrographic surveys, although floats imply warmer temperat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sarah T. Gille
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2003
Subjects:
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.411.8346
http://www-pord.ucsd.edu/~sgille/pub_dir/jpo_gille_2003_floatI.pdf
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Summary:Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) floats are used to examine mean flow and eddy fluxes at 900-m depth in the Southern Ocean. Mean temperature and dynamic topography from float data are consistent with earlier estimates from hydrographic surveys, although floats imply warmer temperatures and narrower frontal structures than do atlas data. Differences between hydrographic and ALACE dynamic topography suggest the presence of eastward bottom velocities of about 2 cm s �1 below the eastward-flowing jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Flow is steered by bathymetry and can be represented as an equivalent barotropic system with an e-folding depth of about 700 m. 1.

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