Topographic meandering of Antarctic Circumpolar Current and Antarctic Circumpolar Wave in the ice-ocean-atmosphere system

Abstract

Topographic meandering of Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is found to be an impediment in the propagation of Antarctic Circumpolar Wave (ACW) in the Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica. Reasons for this are attributed to the southward advection of the ACW anomalies associated with the topographic meandering of the ACC. The southward meandering of ACC facilitates warming up of the region east of 20E by about 1C during winter, thereby reducing the sea ice; these processes interfere with the eastward propagating positive sea-ice anomalies, and reduce its strength. Warming of ocean induced by topographic meandering leads to upward vertical velocities between 40-60E, where the ocean surface velocities are weak and southward, and the vertical/meridional advection of temperature dominates the zonal advection in the atmosphere. This results in the decoupling of the ACW in the region east of 40E. In regions out side the Indian Ocean sector, vertical advection is minimum and zonal velocity of ACC becomes positive, which facilitates the ACW propagation in the Central Pacific, Ross and Weddell Seas. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.