Sources and transport of the deep western boundary current east of the Kerguelen

• Main Authors: Kathleen A. Donohue, Gwyneth E. Huord, Michael S. Mccartney
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1999
• Subjects: Antarctic; Australian Antarctic Basin; Australian-Antarctic Basin; Kerguelen; Princess Elizabeth Trough; The Antarctic; Weddell; Weddell Basin; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.533.393; http://www.po.gso.uri.edu/dynamics/publications/1999grl_dhm.pdf

Abstract. East of the Kerguelen Plateau, a deep western boundary current in the Australian-Antarctic Basin brings cold dense waters north from the margins of Antarctica. Geostrophic velocities referenced to acoustic Doppler cur-rent proler data, both shipboard and lowered, suggest the flow is unidirectional throughout the water column with es-timated northwestward transport below potential temper-ature 1C of 287 x 106 m3s−1 and 499 x 106 m3s−1, respectively. Hydrographic and acoustic Doppler current pro ler data show that the deep boundary current is sup-plied by northward flow emerging from the confluence of westward flow along the Antarctic continental slope and eastward flow of Weddell Basin waters through the Princess Elizabeth Trough to the south of the Kerguelen Plateau. 1.