SUSTAINED MONITORING OF THE SOUTHERN OCEAN AT DRAKE PASSAGE: PAST ACHIEVEMENTS AND FUTURE PRIORITIES

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Drake Passage; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.467.1776; http://pal.lternet.edu/docs/bibliography/Public/415lterc.pdf

[1] Drake Passage is the narrowest constriction of the Ant-arctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in the Southern Ocean, with implications for global ocean circulation and climate. We review the long‐term sustained monitoring programs that have been conducted at Drake Passage, dating back to the early part of the twentieth century. Attention is drawn to numerous breakthroughs that have been made from these programs, including (1) the first determinations of the com-plex ACC structure and early quantifications of its transport; (2) realization that the ACC transport is remarkably steady over interannual and longer periods, and a growing under-standing of the processes responsible for this; (3) recogni-tion of the role of coupled climate modes in dictating the horizontal transport and the role of anthropogenic processes in this; and (4) understanding of mechanisms driving