An Exchange Window for the Injection of Antarctic Intermediate Water into the South Pacific

• Published in: Journal of Physical Oceanography
• Main Authors: Iudicone, Daniele, Rodgers, Keith B., Schopp, R., Madec, Gurvan
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL), 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)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL), Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 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)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: CCSD 2007
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-GEO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDU.STU.GP]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Geophysics [physics.geo-ph]; [SDE.MCG]Environmental Sciences/Global Changes; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Pacific; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00154224; https://hal.science/hal-00154224v1/document; https://hal.science/hal-00154224v1/file/%5B15200485%20-%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Oceanography%5D%20An%20Exchange%20Window%20for%20the%20Injection%20of%20Antarctic%20Intermediate%20Water%20into%20the%20South%20Pacific.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO2985.1

Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) occupies the intermediate horizon of most of the world oceans. Formed in the Southern Ocean, it is characterized by a relative salinity minimum. With a new, denser in situ National Oceanographic Data Center dataset, the authors have reanalyzed the export characteristics of AAIW from the Southern Ocean into the South Pacific Ocean. These new data show that part of the AAIW is exported from the subpolar frontal region by the large-scale circulation through an exchange window of 10° width situated east of 90°W in the southeast corner of the Pacific basin. This suggests the origin of this water to be in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. A set of numerical modeling experiments has been used to reproduce these observed features and to demonstrate that the dynamics of the exchange window is controlled by the basin-scale meridional pressure gradient. The exchange of AAIW between the Southern and Pacific Oceans must therefore be understood in the context of the large basin-scale dynamical balance rather than simply local effects.