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1.
The currents in the Drake Passage are studied from the ADCP and CTD data acquired in a section across the Drake Passage in October-November of 2011 and from the satellite altimeter data. A complicated pattern of currents including eight jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) and a system of slope and abyssal currents was found. The most interesting result is the discovery of several cyclonic and anticyclonic mesoscale eddies confined to the abyss. Some reasons explaining the generation of such eddies by the meandering of the ACC jets in the upper ocean layer are presented.  相似文献   

2.
Currents in the Drake Passage are studied using the data of a hydrographic section along the Shackleton Transverse Ridge observed in November 2007. The distribution of the velocity component normal to the section was computed by two methods: (a) directly on the basis of the lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler (LADCP) data; (b) by the calculation of geostrophic currents based on the CTD data with estimating the depth averaged velocity on the basis of the LADCP data. The main results of the research are the relatively low estimated value of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) transport, which accounts for 65–70% of the ACC transports in December 2003 and November 2005, and the confirmation of the existence of several abyssal currents confined to the deep passages of the bottom topography.  相似文献   

3.
It is shown on the basis of the data of the Russian Academy of Sciences expeditions in 2003–2010, the historical CTD database, the WOCE climatology, and the satellite altimetry that the area of the Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage is even a greater significant orographic barrier for the eastward Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) than was previously thought. It is the current concept that this barrier is the most important for the ACC; it consists of three obstacles: the Hero Ridge with the Phoenix Rift, the Shackleton Ridge, and the North Scotia Ridge with the relatively shallow eastern part of the Scotia Sea. Despite the fact that all three obstacles are permeable for the layer of the Circumpolar Bottom Water (CBW; 28.16 < γ n < 28.26) being considered the lower part of the circumpolar water, the circulation in this layer throughout the Scotia Sea and the Drake Passage quite substantially differs from the transfer by the surface-intensified ACC jets. Herewith, the upper CBW boundary is the lower limit of the circumpolar coverage of the ACC jets. This result is confirmed by the near zero estimate of the total CBW transport according to the three series of the LADCP measurements on the sections across the Drake Passage. It is shown that the transformation (cooling and freshening) of the CBW layer, which occurs owing to the flow of the ACC over the Shackleton Ridge, is associated with the shape and location of the ridge in the Drake Passage. The high southern part of this ridge is a partially permeable screen for the eastward CBW transport behind which the colder and fresher waters of the Weddell Sea and the Bransfield Strait of the same density range as the CBW penetrate into the ACC zone. The partial permeability of the Shackleton Ridge for the CBW layer leads to the salinization of this layer on the eastern side of the ridge and to the CBW’s freshening on the western side of this ridge, which is observed across the entire Drake Passage.  相似文献   

4.
Geostrophic currents in the Drake Passage are studied using the data of two hydrographic sections across the passage occupied in December 2003 and November 2005 along with satellite altimetry data. A conclusion is reached that the altimetry correction of the geostrophic currents has advantages compared to the correction made on the basis of the lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler data. A number of new results about the structure and intensity of the ocean currents in the Drake Passage are obtained; the main one is the distinguishing of several abyssal currents of westward direction confined to deep passages in the bottom topography.  相似文献   

5.
Based on the satellite altimetry dataset of sea level anomalies, the climatic hydrological database World Ocean Atlas-2009, ocean reanalysis ECMWF ORA-S3, and wind velocity components from NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, the interannual variability of Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) transport in the ocean upper layer is investigated for the period 1959–2008, and estimations of correlative connections between ACC transport and wind velocity components are performed. It has been revealed that the maximum (by absolute value) linear trends of ACC transport over the last 50 years are observed in the date-line region, in the Western and Eastern Atlantic and the western part of the Indian Ocean. The greatest increase in wind velocity for this period for the zonal component is observed in Drake Passage, at Greenwich meridian, in the Indian Ocean near 90° E, and in the date-line region; for the meridional component, it is in the Western and Eastern Pacific, in Drake Passage, and to the south of Africa. It has been shown that the basic energy-carrying frequencies of interannual variability of ACC transport and wind velocity components, as well as their correlative connections, correspond to the periods of basic large-scale modes of atmospheric circulation: multidecadal and interdecadal oscillations, Antarctic Circumpolar Wave, Southern Annual Mode, and Southern Oscillation. A significant influence of the wind field on the interannual variability of ACC transport is observed in the Western Pacific (140° E–160° W) and Eastern Pacific; Drake Passage and Western Atlantic (90°–30° W); in the Eastern Atlantic and Western Indian Ocean (10°–70° E). It has been shown in the Pacific Ocean that the ACC transport responds to changes of the meridional wind more promptly than to changes of the zonal wind.  相似文献   

6.
The horizontal structure of the jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is analyzed on the basis of CTD- and LADCP- sounding performed during a hydrophysical survey with a 10-mile spatial resolution in the central part of the Drake Passage in October–November of 2008. According to the modern multijet classification of the ACC, the survey area covered the zones of three jets of the South Polar Current (SPC), which is the middle branch of the ACC. The current jets revealed a fine horizontal thermohaline structure, which was manifested even in the case of the confluence of individual jets into a “superjet.”  相似文献   

7.
The Southern Ocean plays an important role in the global overturning circulation as a significant proportion of deep water is converted into intermediate and deeper water masses in this region. Recently, a secular trend has been reported in wind stress around the Southern Ocean and it is thought theoretically that the strength of the ACC is closely related to wind stress, so one consequence should be a corresponding increase in ACC transport and hence changes in the rate of the global overturning. There are no long-term data sets of ACC transport and so we must examine other data that may also respond to changing wind stress. Here we calculate surface currents in Drake Passage every seven days over 11.25 years from 1992 to 2004. We combine surface velocity anomalies calculated from satellite altimeter sea surface heights with measured surface currents. Since 1992, the UK has regularly occupied WOCE hydrographic section SR1b across the ACC in Drake Passage. From seven hydrographic sections surface currents are estimated by referencing relative geostrophic velocities from CTD sections with current measurements made by shipboard and lowered acoustic Doppler current profilers. Combining the seven estimates of surface currents with the altimeter data reduces bias in the estimates of average currents over time through Drake Passage and we show that surface current anomalies estimated by satellite and in situ observations are in good agreement. The strongest surface currents are found in the Subantarctic and Polar Fronts with average speeds of 50 cm/s and 35 cm/s, respectively and are inversely correlated, so that maximum westward flow in one corresponds to minimum westward flow in the other. The average cross-sectional weighted surface velocity from 1992 to 2004 is 16.7 ± 0.2 cm/s. A spectral analysis of the average surface current has only weakly increasing energy at higher frequencies and there is no dominant mode of variability. The standard deviation of the seven day currents is 0.68 cm/s and a running 12 month average has only a slightly smaller standard deviation of 0.52 ± 0.16 cm/s. The southern annular mode (SAM) measures the circumpolar average of wind stress and like the surface currents its spectrum has slightly increased energy at frequencies greater than 1 cpy. A cospectral analysis of these, averaging cospectra of five slightly overlapping 36 month segments improve statistical reliability, suggests that there is coherence between them at 1 cpy with the currents leading changes in the Southern annular mode. We conclude that the SAM and average Drake Passage surface currents are weakly correlated with no dominant co-varying modes, and hence predicting Southern Ocean transport variability from the SAM is not likely to give significant results and that secular trends in surface currents are likely to be masked by weekly and interannual variability.  相似文献   

8.
The quantitative features and circulation of the Antarctic bottom water (AABW) in the Scotia Sea are investigated using an original procedure for the determination of the boundaries between the water masses. It is shown that the AABW is effectively transferred across the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) from the regions on the south flank of this current where the AABW penetrates into the Scotia Sea. This transfer results in the abyssal water cooling and freshening in the Yaghan Basin of the north Scotia Sea. Some rises and depressions in the bottom relief of the western and northern Scotia Sea are important features that impact the AABW transfer. It is shown that there is an additional path of the AABW transit transport to the North Atlantic passing through the western Scotia Sea. The existence of the semienclosed cyclonic abyssal water circulation in the South Shetland Trench and the westward transport of the Atlantic AABW along the Antarctic slope foot into the Pacific are proved.  相似文献   

9.
An unprecedented high-quality, quasi-synoptic hydrographic data set collected during the ALBATROSS cruise along the rim of the Scotia Sea is examined to describe the pathways of the deep water masses flowing through the region, and to quantify changes in their properties as they cross the sea. Owing to sparse sampling of the northern and southern boundaries of the basin, the modification and pathways of deep water masses in the Scotia Sea had remained poorly documented despite their global significance.Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW) of two distinct types is observed spilling over the South Scotia Ridge to the west and east of the western edge of the Orkney Passage. The colder and fresher type in the west, recently ventilated in the northern Antarctic Peninsula, flows westward to Drake Passage along the southern margin of the Scotia Sea while mixing intensely with eastward-flowing Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) of the antarctic circumpolar current (ACC). Although a small fraction of the other WSDW type also spreads westward to Drake Passage, the greater part escapes the Scotia Sea eastward through the Georgia Passage and flows into the Malvinas Chasm via a deep gap northeast of South Georgia. A more saline WSDW variety from the South Sandwich Trench may leak into the eastern Scotia Sea through Georgia Passage, but mainly flows around the Northeast Georgia Rise to the northern Georgia Basin.In Drake Passage, the inflowing CDW displays a previously unreported bimodal property distribution, with CDW at the Subantarctic Front receiving a contribution of deep water from the subtropical Pacific. This bimodality is eroded away in the Scotia Sea by vigorous mixing with WSDW and CDW from the Weddell Gyre. The extent of ventilation follows a zonation that can be related to the CDW pathways and the frontal anatomy of the ACC. Between the Southern Boundary of the ACC and the Southern ACC Front, CDW cools by 0.15°C and freshens by 0.015 along isopycnals. The body of CDW in the region of the Polar Front splits after overflowing the North Scotia Ridge, with a fraction following the front south of the Falkland Plateau and another spilling over the plateau near 49.5°W. Its cooling (by 0.07°C) and freshening (by 0.008) in crossing the Scotia Sea is counteracted locally by NADW entraining southward near the Maurice Ewing Bank. CDW also overflows the North Scotia Ridge by following the Subantarctic Front through a passage just east of Burdwood Bank, and spills over the Falkland Plateau near 53°W with decreased potential temperature (by 0.03°C) and salinity (by 0.004). As a result of ventilation by Weddell Sea waters, the signature of the Southeast Pacific Deep Water (SPDW) fraction of CDW is largely erased in the Scotia Sea. A modified form of SPDW is detected escaping the sea via two distinct routes only: following the Southern ACC Front through Georgia Passage; and skirting the eastern end of the Falkland Plateau after flowing through Shag Rocks Passage.  相似文献   

10.
Computation of ocean currents in the Drake Passage is carried out with variational assimilation of the data of the hydrographical section across the Drake Passage carried out on December 11–15, 2003, and other data. A stream-eddy structure of the easterly Antarctic Circumpolar Current and a westerly current on the Antarctic Slope are obtained. Water transports by the different current field components and the integral transport across the Drake Passage are estimated. The necessity of direct current measurements in the Drake Passage for a correct estimate of the transport is confirmed.  相似文献   

11.
Methods from chaos theory are applied to the analysis of the circulation in the Southern Ocean, using velocity fields produced by a realistic global ocean model. We plot the intersections of individual trajectories encircling Antarctica with a vertical plane in the Drake passage. This so-called Poincaré section shows a drastic difference between regular trajectories in a core region of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), and chaotic, mixing trajectories in the surrounding region. It also shows that there is a region with overturning circulation of approximately 3.5 Sv in the ACC, with downwelling on the northern side and upwelling on the southern side, which may be related to the Deacon cell.  相似文献   

12.
Dissolved trace element distributions near Elephant Island in the Drake Passage show extremely high levels of dissolved Fe and Mn in waters above the shelf. The entrainment of this enriched shelf water by the Fe-poor Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) as it passes through the Shackleton Gap delivers an estimated 2.8×106 mol yr−1 dissolved Fe to the offshore waters of the Drake Passage. The magnitude and spatial distribution of dissolved Fe, Mn and Al over the shelf are consistent with a diagenetically produced sedimentary source, but are inconsistent with eolian or upwelling sources. The systematics of the Mn and Fe concentrations suggest that there are two distinct sources of dissolved Fe to the surface waters of this region. The highest Fe concentrations are associated with Bransfield Strait water, which can be identified by its characteristic temperature and salinity (T/S) properties both inside the Bransfield Strait and in the Bransfield Current outflow between Elephant and Clarence Islands. Most of the shelf area is dominated by a second water type with T/S properties that are typical of modified Antarctic Surface Water, which while also enriched has a lower Fe:Mn ratio.The predominantly linear relationships between the Fe and Mn concentrations at the stations in each of these water mass types suggest that the distribution of these elements is largely controlled by physical mixing processes and that biological removal of Fe on the shelf, while certainly occurring, is limited, perhaps as a result of rapid physical flushing processes and relatively slow biological growth rates. The consequent export of large quantities of this shelf-derived Fe into the ACC is likely responsible for the extensive regions of enhanced primary production seen in satellite imagery downstream of the Drake Passage.  相似文献   

13.
The currents in the central part of the Drake Passage are investigated by analyzing the CTD and SADCP data over the section across the Drake Passage occupied in November 2010 and satellite altimetry data. All eight of the jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which are currently identidifed, were resolved by the section. The velocities and water transports of these jets are estimated. Three synoptic scale eddies with different vertical structures were revealed; hypotheses on the physical nature of these eddies are discussed.  相似文献   

14.
It has long been seen from satellite ocean color data that strong zonal gradients of phytoplankton biomass persistently occur in the southern Drake Passage during austral summer and fall, where the low productivity Antarctic Surface Water (ASW) within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) region transforms to the high productivity water. An interdisciplinary cruise was conducted in February and March 2004 to investigate potential physical and biogeochemical processes, which are responsible for transporting nutrients and metals and for enhancing primary production. To explore physical processes at both the meso- and large-scales, surface drifters, a shipboard Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler and conductivity–temperature–depth sensors were used. Analyzing meso- and large-scale hydrography, circulation and eddy activities, it is shown that the topographic rise of the Shackleton Transverse Ridge plays the key role in steering an ACC branch southward west of the ridge, forming an eastward ACC jet through the gap between the ridge and Elephant Island and causing the offshelf transport of shelf waters approximately 1.2 Sv from the shelf near Elephant Island. High mesoscale eddy activities associated with this ACC southern branch and shelf waters transported off the shelf were found. The mixing between the iron-poor warmer ASW of the ACC and iron-rich waters on the shelf through horizontal transport and vertical upwelling processes provides a physical process which could be responsible for the enhanced primary productivity in this region and the southern Scotia Sea.  相似文献   

15.
The quantitative properties and circulation of the lower layer of circumpolar water in the Scotia Sea with density 28.16 < γ n < 28.26 (potential temperature 0.9° > θ > 0.2°C) are investigated using the original procedure for determination of boundaries between water masses. The primary objective of this work is data analyses of four Russian sections, which were occupied in the vicinity of the Shackleton Fracture Zone in 2003, 2005, and 2007. It is shown that the ridges in the Hero and Shackleton fracture zones essentially constrain overflow of the lower layer of circumpolar water, and thereby, they produce the conditions to the east of the Shackleton Ridge for transformation (freshening and warming) of this layer reaching the northern side of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. These ridges also promote formation of several quasi-permanent and semi-enclosed abyssal and deep-water eddies adjacent to these ridges. The estimation of overflow of the lower part of the investigated layer with density 28.23 < γ n < 28.26 (0.9° > θ > 0.2°C) through the Shackleton Ridge based on LADCP measurements in 2007 is 0.5 Sv (0.1 Sv) to the east (west). The upper part of the overflow is estimated as 8.0 (7.9) Sv. Thus, the total transport of the lower layer of circumpolar water through the ridge is practically zero. It is confirmed by LADCP measurements carried out on the section across the Drake Passage in 2003.  相似文献   

16.
The large-scale circulation of the Pacific Ocean consists of two great anticyclonic gyres that contract poleward at increasing depth, two high-latitude cyclonic gyres, two westward flows along 10° to 15° north and south that are found from the surface to abyssal depths, and an eastward flow that takes place just north of the equator at the surface and at about 500m, but lies along the equator at all other depths.This pattern is roughly symmetric about the equator except for the northward flow across the equator in the west and the southward flow in the east.As no water denser than about 26.8 in σ0 is formed in the North Pacific, the denser waters of the North Pacific are dominated by the inflow from the South Pacific. Salinity and oxygen in the deeper water are higher in the South Pacific and the nutrients are lower. These characteristics define recognizable paths as they move northward across the equator in the west and circulate within the North Pacific. Return flow is seen across the equator in the east. Part of it turns westward and then southward with the southward limb of the extended cyclonic gyre, and part continues southward along the eastern boundary and through the Drake Passage.The important differences from earlier studies are that the equatorial crossings and the deep paths of flow are defined, and that there are strong cyclonic gyres in the tropics on either side of the equator.  相似文献   

17.
The currents within the junction of the Shackleton and West-Scotia ridges in the central part of the Drake Passage are studied using the data of the hydrographic survey carried out in October–November of 2008. The absolute geostrophic currents were computed by matching the CTD and LADCP data. As a result, the complicated system of deep currents conditioned by the ocean bottom’s topography was revealed and described. A new path of propagation of the Antarctic Bottom Water has been revealed.  相似文献   

18.
The Southern Ocean hosts significant topographic mixing that might be associated with internal tides. Tidal signals are evident in bottom temperature at 1000 m in Drake Passage, suggesting that internal tides with an amplitude of between ∼20 and 200 m may be present. Various necessary conditions for internal tide generation show that the steep topography in and around Drake Passage can initiate internal tides, and recent global tide models have suggested this region to generate very large interface displacements. Here, we present an attempt to detect internal tides in Drake Passage. During the last 10 years, combinations of bottom pressure recorders and inverted echo sounders have been deployed in the region. The bottom pressure recorders measure predominantly the barotropic tide; the inverted echo sounders measure travel time from sea bed to sea surface and therefore are influenced both by sea level (barotropic tide) and internal sound speed (internal tide). By subtracting one from the other, the internal tide should be detectable. Although the technique works successfully around Hawaii, it does not prove the existence of large internal tides in Drake Passage. The detectability of the internal tidal signal in Drake Passage is investigated using a six-layer one-dimensional model to simulate the bottom pressure and travel time signals of a semi-diurnal tide. The temperature and salinity stratification in Drake Passage is sufficiently weak that large vertical excursions are necessary to produce a signal in travel time detectable above the noise in Drake Passage. An internal tide of at least 70 or 20 m in northern and southern Drake Passage, respectively, would be detected. The fact that these are, perhaps surprisingly, not detected by the combination of bottom pressure and travel time, constrains the internal tides in Drake Passage to be ∼20 m in southern Drake Passage, and between 20 and 70 m in northern Drake Passage. The model also predicts that satellite altimetry would not be able to detect internal tides in Drake Passage, but would in the Brazil Basin and Hawaii regions.  相似文献   

19.
Multichannel seismic data from the eastern parts of the Riiser-Larsen Sea have been analyzed with a sequence stratigraphic approach. The data set covers a wide bathymetric range from the lower continental slope to the abyssal plain. Four different sequences (termed RLS-A to RLS-D, from deepest to shallowest) are recognized within the sedimentary section. The RLS-A sequence encompasses the inferred pre-glacial part of the deposits. Initial phases of ice sheet arrival at the eastern Riiser-Larsen Sea margin resulted in the deposition of multiple debris flow units and/or slumps on the upper part of the continental rise (RLS-B). The nature and distribution of these deposits indicate sediment supply from a line or a multi-point source. The subsequent stage of downslope sediment transport activity was dominated by turbidity currents, depositing mainly as distal turbidite sheets on the lower rise/abyssal plain (RLS-C). We attribute this to margin progradation and/or a more focussed sediment delivery to the continental shelf edge. As the accommodation space on the lower rise/abyssal plain declined and the base level was raised, the turbidite channels started to backstep and develop large channel–levee complexes on the upper parts of the continental rise (RLS-D). The deposition of various drift deposits on the lower rise/abyssal plain and along the western margin of the Gunnerus Ridge indicates that the RLS-D sequence is also associated with increased activity of contour currents. The drift deposits overlie a distinct regional unconformity which is considered to reflect a major paleoceanographic event, probably related to a Middle Miocene intensification of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.  相似文献   

20.
A simple analytical model is considered in an attempt to demonstrate a formation mechanism of the abyssal current in the East Sea. In this model, the abyssal currents are driven by wind through an outcrop region and flow along closed geostrophic contours. A rough estimate of the abyssal currents, arrived at by applying this model to the region of deep mixing in the East Sea, gives currents comparable to those observed, although there is an uncertainty in the surface area of the outcrop region. It seems that the spin-up of deep water by wind forcing through the region of deep winter mixing is, at least partly, an important contribution to the formation of the abyssal currents in the East Sea.  相似文献   

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