CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Past Seminars

Thursday, 7th August 2003 at 11.30am

CSIRO Auditorium

Professor Dr Dirk Olbers
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

The zonal and meridional circulation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

The physical ingredients of the ACC circulation are reviewed. A picture of the circulation is sketched by means of recent observations of the WOCE decade (transport, eddy fluxes, floats and drifters, sea surface topography). We present and discuss the role of forcing functions (wind stress, surface buoyancy flux) in the balance of the (quasi)-zonal flow, the meridional circulation and their relation to the ACC transport. Emphasis will be on the interrelation of the zonal momentum balance and the meridional circulation, the importance of diapycnal mixing and eddy processes. Recent model results are discussed within this framework. Finally, two new model concepts are described: a model of the ACC transport dependence on wind stress and buoyancy flux, based on linear wave theory; and a model of the meridional overturning of the Southern Ocean, based on zonally averaged dynamics with eddy parameterization

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