Southern Ocean overturning across streamlines in an eddying simulation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

• Main Authors: Tréguier, Anne-Marie, England, Matthew H., Rintoul, Stephen R., Madec, Gurvan, Le Sommer, Julien, Molines, Jean-Marc
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de physique des océans (LPO), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Université de Brest (UBO)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of New South Wales Sydney (UNSW), CSIRO Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship and Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems CRC, Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels Grenoble (LEGI), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Antarc*; Antarctic; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00331133; https://hal.science/hal-00331133/document; https://hal.science/hal-00331133/file/osd-4-653-2007.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/osd-4-653-2007

International audience An eddying global model is used to study the characteristics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in a streamline-following framework. In the upper layers, the meridional circulation across streamlines agrees with the theoretical view: an equatorward mean flow partially cancelled by a poleward eddy mass flux. The same calculation in a zonal average gives a completely different view and underestimates the eddy effects. Two model simulations, in which the buoyancy forcing above the ACC changes from positive to negative, suggest that the relationship between the residual meridional circulation and the surface buoyancy flux is not as straightforward as assumed by some recent theoretical studies: even the sign of the residual circulation cannot be inferred from the buoyancy forcing. Heat and salt transports by the time-mean flow are important even in the streamline framework. Streamline-averaged, two-dimensional models cannot account quantitatively for the complex three-dimensional structure of the ACC. Heat and salt are balanced in the ACC, the model drift being small, but the nonlinearity of the equation of state cannot be ignored in the density balance.