c © Author(s) 2007. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. Ocean Science Discussions Interactive comment on “On the fast response of the Southern Ocean to changes in the zonal wind”

• Main Authors: D. J. Webb, B. A. De Cuevas
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Deacon; Meredith; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.491.8079; http://www.cosis.net/copernicus/EGU/osd/3/S895/osd-3-S895_p.pdf?PHPSESSID=8156237418201406b6584f4027947e61

First we would like to thank the two reviewers for their comments and suggestions. The physics of the Southern Ocean is often neglected and it is good to have their input. The reviewers ’ comments are concerned with two main topics. The first is a concern about how the results reported in the manuscript contribute to our understanding of the barotropic response of the Southern Ocean. The second concerns how they contribute to our understanding of the Deacon Cell. We agree with the first reviewer that any fast response must be barotropic but as far as we know there have been few studies of the problem, except for the sea level studies of Hughes, Meredith, Woodworth and co-workers (Hughes et al 1999, 2003, Mered-ith 2004). This contrasts with the large number of papers concerned with the mean S895 flow in an unstratified Southern Ocean or concerned with the baroclinic features of the Southern Ocean. At a practical level, the realism of the present model makes it easier to relate the results to actual observations from the region. It also gives a new insight into the connection