Baroclinic Transport Variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current South of Australia (WOCE Repeat Section SR3) Stephenr
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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 106, NO. C2, PAGES 2815-2832, FEBRUARY 15, 2001 Baroclinic transport variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current south of Australia (WOCE repeat section SR3) StephenR. Rintoul and SergueiSokolov CSIRO Marine Research and Antarctic Cooperative Research Centre Hobart, Tasmania, Australia Abstract. Baroclinic transport variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) near 140øEis estimatedfrom six occupationsof a repeat sectionoccupied as part of the World OceanCirculation Experiment (WOCE sectionSR3). The meantop-to-bottom volume transport is 147+10 Sv (mean+l standarddeviation), relative to a deep referencelevel consistentwith water mass properties and float trajectories. The location and transport of the main fronts of the ACC are relatively steady: the Subantarctic Front carries 105+7 Sv at a mean latitude between 51o and 52øS;the northern branch of the Polar Front carries 5+5 Sv to the east between 53ø and 54øS;the southern Polar Front carries 24+3 Sv eastward at 59øS; and two cores of the southern ACC front at 62ø and 64øS carry 18+3 and ll+3 Sv, respectively. The variability in net property transports is largely due to variability of currents north of the ACC, in particular, an outflow of 8+13 Sv of water from the Tasman Sea and a deep anticyclonicrecirculation carrying 22+8 Sv in the Subantarctic Zone. Variability of net baroclinic volume transport is similar in magnitude to that measuredat Drake Passage.In density layers, transport variability is small in deeplayers, but significant(range of 4 to 16 Sv) in the SubantarcticMode Water. Variability of eastwardheat transportacross SR3 is significant(range of 139øCSv, or 0.57x 10•5 W, relativeto 0øC)and large relative to meridionalheat flux in the Southern Hemispheresubtropical gyres. Heat transport changesare primarily due to variations in the westward flow of relatively warm water acrossthe northern end of the section.Weak (strong)westward flow and large (small) eastwardheat flux coincideswith equatorward(poleward) displacements of the latitude of zero wind stress curl. 1. Introduction a more seriouschallenge. Early attempts to measurethe barotropicflow using short-term current meter records The Antarctic CircumpolarCurrent (ACC) provides led to wildly differenttransport estimates(see Peter- the primary means by which mass, heat, salt, and other son[1988] for a review). The discrepancybetween these properties are transferred between the ocean basins. early direct velocity measurementsinspired a concerted The interbasin connectionprovided by the ACC is there- effort during the International SouthernOcean Studies fore a key element in the global overturning circulation. (ISOS) experimentin Drake Passage.High-resolution The vigorous interbasin exchangeaccomplished by the hydrographicsections revealed the bandednature of the ACC also opens the possibility of oceanic teleconnec- ACC and explained the earlier current meter results: tions, where anomalies formed in one basin may be car- an instrument deployed in one of the strong narrow ried around the globe to influence climate at remote fronts would give vastly different resultsfrom one de- locations [e.g., White and Peterson,1996; White and ployedin the weak flow betweenthe jets. During ISOS, Cherry, 1998]. current meter mooringsand pressuregauges were de- For these reasonsthe transport of the ACC has been ployed across the passageand maintained for a num- a subject of intenseoceanographic interest for decades. ber of years. The result of this dedicated effort was an While calculation of the geostrophictransport relative estimate of the mean absolute transport of the ACC: to a deep reference level from measurements of den- 1344-13Sv [ Whirworth,1983; Whirworthand Peterson, sity was straightforward, the barotropic flow presented 1985].This numberis oftentaken, alongwith the trans- port of the Gulf Stream through the Florida Straits, as Copyright2001 by the AmericanGeophysical Union. one of the few "knowns"in the oceanographer'scanon. The ISOS measurements also revealed the variability Paper number 2000JC900107 of the ACC. Deep pressuregauges rnoored on either side 0148-0227/01/2000JC900107509.00 of the passageprovided a 4 year record of the pressure 2815 2816 RINTOUL AND SOKOLOV: TRANSPORT VARIABILITY OF THE ACC Table 1. Occupationsof the WOCE SR3 Repe;•tHydrographic Line Cruise Date Number of Stations Reference AU9101 October 1991 24 Rintoul and Bullister [1999] AU9309 March 1993 47 Rosenberget al. [1995a] AU9407 January 1994 53 Rosenberget al. [1995b] AU9404 January 1995 51 Rosenberget al. [1996] AU9501 July 1995 54 Rosenberget al. [1997] AU9601 September 1996 57 Rosenbergct al. [1997] differenceacross the passage,which could be relateddi- moorings(consisting of temperatureand/or conductiv- rectlyto changesin net transportthrough the passage ity sensorsat 6-7 levelsmoored on the 2500m isobath) [Whitworthand Peterson, 1985]. The pressurerecords on either side of the passageprovided a i year record showedthat the transportvaried by about 15-20 Sv on of baroclinic transport variability. While the overall timescalesof a few days [Whirworth,1983]. Transport consistencyin hydrographicstructure revealed on dif- 7.2¾ 1.71 Tasman •Sea 2 Figure 1. Locationof theWOCE SR3 section (dots) and the SURVOsTRAL high density XBT line (diamonds).Contours are dynamicheight at 500m relativeto 3000m fromthe stationdata set(not the mapped fields) of Gouretskiand Janeke [1998]; the field is mapped using a biharmonic method[Sokolov and Rintoul, 1999]. Depths less than 3000 m areshaded. Trajectories of several AutonomousLagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) floats [Davis et al., 1992]are shown. The floatsare deployedat approximately950 dbar. The deploymentlocation is indicatedwith a +. The lengthof eachsegment represents the drift over27 days. RINTOUL AND SOKOLOV: TRANSPORT VARIABILITY OF THE ACC 2817 ferent transectsacross Drake Passage [e.g., Reid and in unitsof kg m-a, all salinityvalues are on the prac- Nowlin Jr., 1971] has contributedto an emphasison tical salinity scale, and all temperatures are potential the barotropic component of the variability, the baro- referenced to the sea surface. The emphasisof this pa- clinic variability from the dynamicheight mooringsis of per is on the baroclinic transport variability. Readers comparable magnitude to the absolute transport vari- interested in a more complete discussionof the water ability inferred from the pressuregauges, although the masses and circulation at SR3 are referred to Rintoul former varies on longer timescales. and Bullister [1999]. Yaremchuk½t al. [thisissue] pro- Most of what we know about the mean flow and vari- vide a different perspective on the mean flow and vari- ability of the ACC is based on these ISOS results in ability at SR3, based on results of a variational model. Drake Passage. No similar measurementprogram had Figure 1 showsthe location of the SR3 section, the been carried out at other longitudes until the World mean dynamic topography at 500 m relative to 3000 m OceanCirculation Experiment (WOCE). DuringWOCE and the bathymetry in the area. The strongest flow of the transport of the ACC was monitored at the South- the ACC is found on the north side of the Southeast In- ern ocean "chokepoints," using repeat conductivity- dian Ridge. Near 140øE the ridge and the current turn temperature-depth(CTD) and expendablebathyther- to the southeast. The South Tasman Rise lies north of mograph(XBT) sections,pressure gauges, moored in- the ACC and reaches sufficiently close to the sea sur- struments, and remote sensing.In this paper we present face (<1500 m depth) to providea significantobstacle results from six occupationsof the WOCE repeat hy- to flow in this region. Streamlinesassociated with the drographicsection (SR3) acrossthe Australian choke- eastwardflow south of the ridge and west of 140øE turn point section. (The use of the term chokepoint,while to the north upon encounteringthe shoalingtopogra- common,is perhaps misleadingfor sectionsas long as phy of the ridge and then turn back to the southeast thosesouth of Africa (m4000km) and Australia(m2500 again oncethey crossthe ridge. km).) We describethe primary circulation features between 3. Results Tasmania and Antarctica and quantify their baroclinic 3.1. Mean Density Structure transport variability. Variability in the net fluxes of mass, heat, salt, and nutrients is documented and re- To provide a context for the transport discussionto lated to changesin specificcurrent branchessouth of follow, Figure 2 showsa sectionof neutral density along Australia. In particular, the interbasin exchange of SR3 constructed from a mean of the six repeat sections. properties south of Australia is shown to be sensitive Density surfacesgenerally slope upward to the south to variations in the strength of westward flow observed across the section. At the northern end of the section acrossthe northern end of SR3. These changesare the overall trend of the neutral surfacesis reversed, and shown to be linked to meridional shifts in the latitude density surfaces shoal to the north to form a shallow of zero wind stress curl. The results are compared to isopycnalbowl between 50øS and 44øS. A thick pycnos- earlier measurementsfrom Drake Passage. Finally, we tad with density between 26.9 and 27.0 fills the upper discussthe implications of the observedtransport vari- part (150-600m) of the bowl. This is the local variety ability for interbasin exchangeand for the representa- of SubantarcticMode Water