Recent changes in the ventilation of the southern oceans

Surface westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere have intensified over the past few decades, primarily in response to the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole, and there is intense debate on the impact of this on the ocean's circulation and uptake and redistribution of atmospheric gases. We u...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Waugh, DW, Primeau, FW, DeVries, T, Holzer, M
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2013
Subjects:
14 Life Below Water
Antarctic Regions
Chlorofluorocarbons
Oceans and Seas
Ozone Depletion
Seasons
Wind
anzsrc-for: 040503 Physical Oceanography
Antarctic
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_37747
https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/92ee2835-a778-4de4-820b-19f2a63f86e4/download
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1225411
Description
Summary:Surface westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere have intensified over the past few decades, primarily in response to the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole, and there is intense debate on the impact of this on the ocean's circulation and uptake and redistribution of atmospheric gases. We used measurements of chlorofluorocarbon-12 (CFC-12) made in the southern oceans in the early 1990s and mid- to late 2000s to examine changes in ocean ventilation. Our analysis of the CFC-12 data reveals a decrease in the age of subtropical subantarctic mode waters and an increase in the age of circumpolar deep waters, suggesting that the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole has caused large-scale coherent changes in the ventilation of the southern oceans.

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