USAP-DC

This study will investigate how the Antarctic Slope Front and continental slope morphology determine the exchanges of mass, heat, and fresh water between the shelf and the deep ocean, in particular those leading to outflows of dense water into intermediate and deep layers of the adjacent basins and into the world ocean circulation
While the importance to the global ocean circulation and climate of cold water masses originating in the Antarctic is unquestioned, the processes by which these water masses enter the deep ocean circulation are not. The primary goal of this work therefore is to identify the principal physical processes that govern the transfer of shelf-modified dense water into intermediate and deep layers of the adjacent deep ocean. At the same time, it seeks to understand the compensatory poleward flow of waters from the oceanic regime. The upper continental slope has been identified as the critical gateway for the exchange of shelf and deep ocean waters. Here the topography, velocity and density fields associated with the nearly ubiquitous front must strongly influence the advective and turbulent transfer of water properties between the shelf and oceanic regimes. The study has four specific objectives: [1] Determine the mean frontal structure and the principal scales of variability, and estimate the role of the front on cross-slope exchanges and mixing of adjacent water masses; [2] Determine the influence of slope topography and bathymetry on frontal location and outflow of dense Shelf Water; [3] Establish the role of frontal instabilities, benthic boundary layer transports, tides and other oscillatory processes on cross-slope advection and fluxes; and [4] Assess the effect of diapycnal mixing, lateral mixing identified through intrusions, and nonlinearities in the equation of state on the rate of descent and the fate of outflowing, near-freezing Shelf Water.

Person	Role
Gordon, Arnold	Investigator
Cande, Steven	Investigator
Visbeck, Martin	Investigator
Jacobs, Stanley	Investigator

Antarctic Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Award # 0125172

NBP0304D
NBP0304C

Deployment	Type
NBP0302	ship expedition
NBP0304C	ship expedition
NBP0304D	ship expedition
NBP0402	ship expedition
NBP0408	ship expedition
NBP0501	ship expedition

None in the Database

Repository	Title (link)	Format(s)	Status
R2R	Expedition Data	None	exist
R2R	Expedition Data	None	exist
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0302	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0408	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0304C	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0304D	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0501	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0501	None	exists
R2R	Expedition data of NBP0402	None	exists