Turbulence in Antarctic Circumpolar Current standing meanders

Project overview

This proposal is to study the role of turbulent mixing in the meridional overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and the dynamics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). The project is motivated by the recent discovery of Southern Ocean regions of remarkably intense and widespread turbulence, an observation that defies current theoretical understanding of the circulation based on the assumption of little mixing in the ocean interior. The project is exciting because it will use innovative instrumentation to measure turbulent mixing in the deep Southern Ocean for the first time, to determine its causes and to assess its impact on the overturning circulation and the transport of the ACC. The focus of the project will be on observing and modelling the circulation and mixing in a standing meander of the ACC north of the Kerguelen Plateau, a dynamically important region of the current system. This novel way of looking at the ACC will provide important new insight into how the the current interacts with bottom topography (a crucial issue for understanding what sets the ACC transport), the dynamical nature of the overturning circulation of the Southern Ocean and how this should be represented in ocean circulation and climate models.

Staff

Lead researchers

ANG

Professor Alberto Naveira Garabato

Professor in Physical Oceanography

Connect with Alberto

Email: acng@soton.ac.uk

Collaborating research institutes, centres and groups

Physical Oceanography

The research group explores patterns of change and variability in satellite and in-situ measurements of surface temperature, sea level and productivity.

Research outputs

Forcing of the overturning circulation across a circumpolar channel by internal wave breaking

Maria B. Broadbridge, Alberto Naveira Garabato & A.J. George Nurser, 2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 121(8), 5436-5451

DOI: 10.1002/2015JC011597

Type: article

Internal lee wave closures: Parameter sensitivity and comparison to observations

D.S. Trossman, S. Waterman, K.L. Polzin, B.K. Arbic, S.T. Garner, A.C. Naveira-Garabato & K.L. Sheen, 2015, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 120(12), 7997-8019

DOI: 10.1002/2015JC010892

Type: article

Rapid injection of near-inertial shear into the stratified upper ocean at an Antarctic Circumpolar Current front

Alexander Forryan, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Kurt L. Polzin & Stephanie Waterman, 2015, Geophysical Research Letters, 42(9), 3431-3441

DOI: 10.1002/2015GL063494

Type: article

Global patterns of diapycnal mixing from measurements of the turbulent dissipation rate

Amy F. Waterhouse, Jennifer A. MacKinnon, Jonathan D. Nash, Matthew H. Alford, Eric Kunze, Harper L. Simmons, Kurt L. Polzin, Louis C. St. Laurent, Oliver M. Sun, Robert Pinkel, Lynne D. Talley, Caitlin B. Whalen, Tycho N. Huussen, Glenn S. Carter, Ilker Fer, Stephanie Waterman, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Thomas B. Sanford & Craig M. Lee, 2014, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 44(7), 1854-1872

DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-13-0104.1

Type: article

Suppression of Internal Wave Breaking in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current near Topography

Stephanie Waterman, Kyrt K, Polzin, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, Katy L. Sheen & Alexander Forryan, 2014, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 44(5), 1466-1492

DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-12-0154.1

Type: article

Internal Waves and Turbulence in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Stephanie Waterman, Alberto C. Naveira Garabato & Kurt L. Polzin, 2013, Journal of Physical Oceanography, 43(2), 259-282

DOI: 10.1175/JPO-D-11-0194.1

Type: article

Water mass pathways and transports over the South Scotia Ridge west of 50°W

Margarita Palmer, Damià Gomis, Maria del Mar Flexas, Gabriel Jordà, Loic Jullion, Takamasa Tsubouchi & Alberto C. Naveira Garabato, 2012, Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, 59, 8-24

DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2011.10.005

Type: article