Eddy heat fluxes from direct current measurements of the Antarctic Polar Front in Shag Rocks Passage

Walkden, Graham J., Heywood, Karen J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026 and Stevens, David P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-4405 (2008) Eddy heat fluxes from direct current measurements of the Antarctic Polar Front in Shag Rocks Passage. Geophysical Research Letters, 35 (6). ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Determining meridional heat flux in the Southern Ocean is critical to the accurate understanding and model simulation of the global ocean. Mesoscale eddies provide a significant but poorly-defined contribution to this transport. An eighteen-month deep-water current meter array deployment in Shag Rocks Passage (53°S, 48°W) between May 2003 and November 2004 provides estimates of the eddy flux of heat across the Polar Front. We calculate a statistically nonzero (99% level), vertically coherent local poleward heat flux of 12.0 ± 5.8 kW m-2 within the eddy frequency band at ~2750 m depth. Exceeding previous deep-water estimates by up to an order of magnitude, this highlights the large spatial variation in flux estimates and illustrates that constriction of circumpolar fronts facilitates large eddy transfers of heat southwards.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences Faculty of Science > School of Mathematics University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluid and Solid Mechanics
Depositing User:	David Stevens
Date Deposited:	01 Dec 2010 14:12
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2023 13:36
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/15917
DOI:	10.1029/2007GL032767

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