HE41B:
Mechanisms for Variability, Circulation, and Transformation of Water Masses in the Southern Ocean I

Session ID#: 92357

Session Description:
The Southern Ocean plays an important role in global climate; encircling the globe, linking the different ocean basins, and connecting the surface ocean with the abyss. The southern limb of the global meridional overturning circulation regulates the storage of heat and carbon in the deep ocean through transformation of deep water into bottom and intermediate water. The upwelling of nutrient-rich deep water further regulates primary productivity and the biological pumping of carbon into the deep ocean, thus affecting global biogeochemical cycling. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current and the meridional overturning circulation have historically been described in zonal-mean frameworks that neglect the potential contributions from local and regional processes. Recent studies show that localized processes including those due to the influence of topography and frontal dynamics shape the large-scale dynamics, upwelling, tracer distributions, and biogeochemistry in the Southern Ocean. This session aims to facilitate a discussion on the physical mechanisms that control the variability, circulation, and transformation of water masses in the Southern Ocean. Our focus will be on the importance of local dynamics in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the fluxes and upwelling of deep water across the Southern Ocean and onto the Antarctic shelf, and the mechanisms responsible for the export of bottom and intermediate water into the global ocean. To complement this, we encourage discussion on diabatic processes responsible for the transformation of these water masses by air-ice-sea interactions and mixing, as well as discussion linking the dynamics and water-mass transformation to the biogeochemical properties of the Southern Ocean.
Co-Sponsor(s):
  • OB - Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry
  • PL - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Larger
  • PS - Physical Oceanography: Mesoscale and Smaller
Index Terms:

4215 Climate and interannual variability [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4283 Water masses [OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL]
4520 Eddies and mesoscale processes [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
4562 Topographic/bathymetric interactions [OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICAL]
Primary Chair:  Annie Foppert, Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Australia, Hobart, TAS, Australia
Co-chairs:  Edward Doddridge, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, Dafydd Gwyn Evans, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO14, United Kingdom and Madeleine K Youngs, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States
Primary Liaison:  Annie Foppert, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, United States
Moderators:  Edward Doddridge, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom and Annie Foppert, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Edward Doddridge, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

HE41B-01
Genesis of the Antarctic Slope Current in West Antarctica (645065)
Andrew F Thompson, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, Xiaozhou Ruan, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, United States, Kevin Speer, Florida State University, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute(GFDI), Department of Scientific Computing(DSC), Tallahassee, United States, Lena M. Schulze Chretien, Jacksonville University, Marine Science Research Institute, Jacksonville, FL, United States, Karen J. Heywood, University of East Anglia, Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, School of Environmental Science, Norwich, United Kingdom and Ria Oelerich, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom
HE41B-02
What drives the Antarctic Slope Current? (641119)
Andrew Stewart, University of California Los Angeles, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, United States, Andreas Klocker, University of Tasmania, Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Tasmania, TAS, Australia and Dimitris Menemenlis, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States
HE41B-03
Does Topographic Form Stress Impede the Antarctic Slope Current? (644987)
Yue BAI, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, United States, Yan Wang, The Hong Kong University of Science and Thechnology, Hong Kong and Andrew Stewart, University of California Los Angeles, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Los Angeles, United States
HE41B-04
Topographic control of mixing in a dense boundary current in the Orkney Passage (643257)
Sonya Legg1, Einar Povl Abrahamsen2, Christian E. Buckingham2, Alex Forryan3, Eleanor Frajka-Williams4, Stephen Griffies5, Alberto Naveira Garabato3, Keith W Nicholls2, Kurt L Polzin6, Jean-baptiste Sallee7, Carl Spingys8 and Lily Wittle9, (1)Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, United States, (2)British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, (3)University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, (4)National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, (5)Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, United States, (6)WHOI, Woods Hole, United States, (7)LOCEAN-IPSL, CNRS/IRD/MNHN/Sorbonne Université, Paris, France, (8)University of Southampton, Ocean and Earth Science, Southampton, United Kingdom, (9)NOAA Ernest F Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship Program, Silver Spring, United States
HE41B-05
Mesoscale Eddy Transport Across the Polar Front: a Model-Observation Comparison (644081)
Audrey-Anne Gauthier, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, Carolina O. Dufour, McGill University, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Montréal, QC, Canada, Alison R Gray, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, United States and Stephen Griffies, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, United States
HE41B-06
Internal Waves, Turbulence and Mixing in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (654396)
Andreas M Thurnherr, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY, United States, Yvonne Firing, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, Teresa K Chereskin, SIO/UCSD, La Jolla, CA, United States and Stephanie Waterman, University of British Columbia, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Vancouver, BC, Canada
HE41B-07
The regulation of sea ice thickness by double-diffusive processes in the Ross Gyre (640892)
Yana Bebieva, Florida State University, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute, Tallahassee, FL, United States and Kevin Speer, Florida State University, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute(GFDI), Department of Scientific Computing(DSC), Tallahassee, United States
HE41B-08
A Major Shift in Southern Ocean Climate System (646846)
Alexander Haumann1, Samuel Bartusek2, Tom Bracegirdle3, Michael Paul Meredith4 and Jorge L Sarmiento1, (1)Princeton University, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Program, Princeton, NJ, United States, (2)Princeton University, Department of Geosciences, Princeton, NJ, United States, (3)British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom, (4)NERC British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge, United Kingdom
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