Marine atmospheric boundary layer over some Southern Ocean fronts during the IPY BGH 2008 cruise

A set of meteorological instruments was added to an oceanographic cruise crossing the Southern Ocean from Cape Town to 57°33' S during the summer of 2008. The Cape Cauldron, the Subtropical, Subantarctic, Polar and southern Antarctic Circumpolar current fronts were successively crossed. The rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ocean Science
Main Authors: C. Messager, S. Speich, E. Key
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2012
Subjects:
G
IPY
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-8-1001-2012
https://doaj.org/article/7675c67857444b38809998a8bd71fb4c
Description
Summary:A set of meteorological instruments was added to an oceanographic cruise crossing the Southern Ocean from Cape Town to 57°33' S during the summer of 2008. The Cape Cauldron, the Subtropical, Subantarctic, Polar and southern Antarctic Circumpolar current fronts were successively crossed. The recorded data permitted to derive the exchange of momentum, heat and water vapour at the ocean-atmosphere interface. A set of 38 radiosonde releases complemented the dataset. The marine atmospheric boundary layer characteristics and air-sea interaction when the ship crossed the fronts and eddies are discussed. The specific role of the atmospheric synoptic systems advection on the air-sea interaction over these regions is highlighted. Additionally, the Subantarctic front mesoscale variability induced an anticyclonic eddy considered as part of the Subantarctic front. The specific influence of this Agulhas ring on the aloft atmosphere is also presented.