Response of the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean to Wind Stress Variability From 1995 to 2017

AbstractDrifter, satellite, expendable bathythermograph (XBT), and Argo float data are used to study the response of the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean (PSSO) to the wind stress field in the period 1995–2017, in terms of eddy field, water mass transport, and heat fluxes at large and regional s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
Main Authors: Yuri Cotroneo, Gianna Fusco, R. Di Lemma, Pierpaolo Falco, Enrico Zambianchi, Milena Menna, Giorgio Budillon, Pierre-Marie Poulain
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
Aurora Universities Network
NEANIAS Atmospheric Research Community
Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
Space and Planetary Science
Geochemistry and Petrology
Geophysics
Oceanography
Antarctic
New Zealand
Pacific
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:https://www.openaccessrepository.it/record/91977
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jc015696
Description
Summary:AbstractDrifter, satellite, expendable bathythermograph (XBT), and Argo float data are used to study the response of the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean (PSSO) to the wind stress field in the period 1995–2017, in terms of eddy field, water mass transport, and heat fluxes at large and regional scales. Increasing wind stress over the PSSO in those two decades led to a growth of the Eddy Kinetic Energy (EKE) in the region of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). Increases of the EKE occur with delays of 1–4 years with respect to peaks in the zonal component of the wind stress. The persistent ACC meander located south of New Zealand (between 150°E and 180°W and 50°S to 66°S) responds to the interannual wind variations earlier than the entire ACC branch in the PSSO. In the same area, an estimate of the ACC transport based on in situ data shows interannual variability but no significant decadal trend over the study period. The effects of the EKE variability on the meridional eddy heat fluxes are significant on interannual scales. The strengthening of the EKE field leads to a local increase in the poleward meridional eddy heat fluxes in the PSSO, especially in the ACC band. The weakening of the EKE field defines an area of equatorward meridional eddy heat fluxes in the middle of the PSSO (south of 40°S, between 130°W and 160°W) and prevalent poleward fluxes in the further western and eastern regions.

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