The Bransfield current system

• Published in: Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers
• Main Authors: Sangrà, Pablo, Gordo, Carmen, Hernández-Arencibia, Mónica, Marrero-Díaz, Angeles, Rodríguez-Santana, Angel, Stegner, Alexander, Martínez-Marrero, Antonio, Pelegrí, Josep L., Pichon, Thierry
• Other Authors: Departamento de Física (DFIS), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Unité de Mécanique (UME), École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA Paris), Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris, École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), Institute of Marine Sciences / Institut de Ciències del Mar Barcelona (ICM), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Madrid (CSIC), Dynamique des Fluides et Acoustique (DFA), École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA Paris)-École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA Paris)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2011
• Subjects: Bransfield Strait; Bransfield Current; Circumpolar Deep Water; Anticylonic eddies; Gravity current; [PHYS.MECA.GEME]Physics [physics]/Mechanics [physics]/Mechanical engineering [physics.class-ph]; [SPI.MECA.GEME]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Mechanics [physics.med-ph]/Mechanical engineering [physics.class-ph]; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Central Basin; South Shetland Islands; The Antarctic; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://ensta-paris.hal.science/hal-00838861; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2011.01.011

International audience We use hydrographic data collected during two interdisciplinary cruises, CIEMAR and BREDDIES, to describe the mesoscale variability observed in the Central Basin of the Bransfield Strait (Antarctica). The main mesoscale feature is the Bransfield Front and the related Bransfield Current, which flows northeastward along the South Shetland Island Slope. A laboratory model suggests that this current behaves as a gravity current driven by the local rotation rate and the density differences between the Transitional Zonal Water with Bellingshausen influence (TBW) and the Transitional Zonal Water with Weddell Sea influence (TWW). Below the Bransfield Front we observe a narrow (10. km wide) tongue of Circumpolar Deep Water all along the South Shetland Islands Slope. At the surface, the convergence of TBW and TWW leads to a shallow baroclinic front close to the Antarctic Peninsula (hereafter Peninsula Front). Between the Bransfield Front and the Peninsula Front we observe a system of TBW anticyclonic eddies, with diameters about 20. km that can reach 300. m deep. This eddy system could be originated by instabilities of the Bransfield Current. The Bransfield Current, the anticyclonic eddy system, the Peninsula Front and the tongue of Circumpolar Deep Water, are the dynamically connected components of the Bransfield Current System. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.