The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) links the major ocean basins, making the Southern Ocean a crucial crossroads in the global ocean overturning circulation. The exchange of water masses between the Southern Ocean and lower latitudes by meridional transports of heat, freshwater, dissolved gases and nutrients influences climate and marine productivity. Meridional transport of ocean heat from the open ocean to the Antarctic margin drives basal melt of ice shelves and influences sea ice formation and retreat.
Meridional transport across the Southern Ocean is accomplished by a complex mix of processes, including geostrophic flows, eddy fluxes, and wind-driven motions. Changes in forcing, air-sea exchange of heat, freshwater and momentum, and freshwater fluxes associated with ocean-cryosphere interaction, can drive changes in meridional transport with implications for lower latitudes, but the sensitivity of the overturning circulation to changes in forcing is not yet fully understood.
Water masses formed in the Southern Ocean, including Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) and Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), spread over a vast range of latitudes. The northward transport of AABW prevents hypoxia in the deep basins of the world oceans while AAIW and SAMW sequester anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide and carry nutrients and freshwater to the upwelling regions of mid-latitudes and the tropics. North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) enters the Southern Ocean from the North bringing dissolved inorganic carbon and heat.
Understanding Southern Ocean exchange with the northern oceans is a prerequisite to understanding and thus predicting climate variability and change. Exchanges between the open ocean and the Antarctic margin both influence and respond to changes in the cryosphere (sea ice, ice shelves and icebergs).
This Research Topic is proposed to cover all aspects of the climate system that react to and interact with meridional transports in the Southern Ocean. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:
• Exchange between the Southern Ocean and lower latitudes
• Processes contributing to the meridional and vertical motions associated with the Southern Ocean overturning circulation
• The sensitivity of meridional exchange to changes in forcing (e.g. winds, air-sea heat flux, and freshwater flux)
• Variability of the meridional transport in the past, present, and future under a changing climate, and assessment of the impacts of variability and change in meridional transport on lower latitudes and climate.
• The contribution of Southern Ocean meridional exchange to global biogeochemical cycles
• Formation and variability of Southern Ocean water masses
• Processes regulating ocean heat transport to the Antarctic margin
We accept original research, review, mini review, hypotheses and theory, perspective, data report and opinion articles.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) links the major ocean basins, making the Southern Ocean a crucial crossroads in the global ocean overturning circulation. The exchange of water masses between the Southern Ocean and lower latitudes by meridional transports of heat, freshwater, dissolved gases and nutrients influences climate and marine productivity. Meridional transport of ocean heat from the open ocean to the Antarctic margin drives basal melt of ice shelves and influences sea ice formation and retreat.
Meridional transport across the Southern Ocean is accomplished by a complex mix of processes, including geostrophic flows, eddy fluxes, and wind-driven motions. Changes in forcing, air-sea exchange of heat, freshwater and momentum, and freshwater fluxes associated with ocean-cryosphere interaction, can drive changes in meridional transport with implications for lower latitudes, but the sensitivity of the overturning circulation to changes in forcing is not yet fully understood.
Water masses formed in the Southern Ocean, including Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW), Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) and Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), spread over a vast range of latitudes. The northward transport of AABW prevents hypoxia in the deep basins of the world oceans while AAIW and SAMW sequester anthropogenic heat and carbon dioxide and carry nutrients and freshwater to the upwelling regions of mid-latitudes and the tropics. North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) enters the Southern Ocean from the North bringing dissolved inorganic carbon and heat.
Understanding Southern Ocean exchange with the northern oceans is a prerequisite to understanding and thus predicting climate variability and change. Exchanges between the open ocean and the Antarctic margin both influence and respond to changes in the cryosphere (sea ice, ice shelves and icebergs).
This Research Topic is proposed to cover all aspects of the climate system that react to and interact with meridional transports in the Southern Ocean. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:
• Exchange between the Southern Ocean and lower latitudes
• Processes contributing to the meridional and vertical motions associated with the Southern Ocean overturning circulation
• The sensitivity of meridional exchange to changes in forcing (e.g. winds, air-sea heat flux, and freshwater flux)
• Variability of the meridional transport in the past, present, and future under a changing climate, and assessment of the impacts of variability and change in meridional transport on lower latitudes and climate.
• The contribution of Southern Ocean meridional exchange to global biogeochemical cycles
• Formation and variability of Southern Ocean water masses
• Processes regulating ocean heat transport to the Antarctic margin
We accept original research, review, mini review, hypotheses and theory, perspective, data report and opinion articles.