• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.469.3510; http://www-pord.ucsd.edu/~ltalley/papers/2000s/climode_BAMS2009.pdf

A field experiment observes wintertime atmospheric and oceanic convection over the Gulf Stream, where the ocean gives up its heat to the atmosphere during intense storms. O ne of the best-known hydrographic features of the midlatitude oceans is “Sub-Tropical Mode Water ” (“STMW”), an upper-ocean water mass characterized by homogeneous properties and extending, in wintertime, to a depth of some 400 m. Mode waters were first observed over 130 yr ago by Thomson (1877). Since these pioneering observa-tions, they have been found in all midlatitude gyres and adjacent to all major currents, including the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. As suggested by their name, mode waters are particularly voluminous [see Worthington (1959, 1976) and the review of Hanawa and Talley (2001)]. Given the widespread and per-vasive nature of mode waters, it is clear they are a manifestation of very basic ocean dynamics, and yet