Ocean Science Modelling the seasonal variability of the Antarctic Slope Current

• Main Authors: P. Mathiot, H. Goosse, T. Fichefet, B. Barnier
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.593.1421; http://hal.inria.fr/docs/00/64/71/27/PDF/os-7-455-2011.pdf

Abstract. One of the main features of the oceanic circula-tion along Antarctica is the Antarctic Slope Current (ASC). This circumpolar current flows westwards and contributes to communication between the three major oceanic basins around Antarctica. The ASC is not very well known due to remote location and the presence of sea ice during sev-eral months, allowing in situ studies only during summer-time. Moreover, only few modelling studies of this current have been carried out. Here, we investigate the sensitivity of this simulated current to four different resolutions in a cou-pled ocean-sea ice model and to two different atmospheric forcing sets. Two series of simulations are conducted. For the first series, global model configurations are run at coarse (2◦) to eddy-permitting (0.25◦) resolutions with the same at-mospheric forcing. For the second series, simulations with