Twenty-five years of Mercator ocean reanalysis GLORYS12 at Drake Passage: Velocity assessment and total volume transport

Geostrophic transport through the drake passage.

Geostrophic velocity and transport of water in the Drake Passage relative to a newly defined zero reference layer indicate that the circumpolar current is basically north of 59 degrees S, with its axis north 57 degrees S, and that the total volume transport exceeds 200 x 10(6) cubic meters per second. The calculated geostrophic velocities are consistent with results of descriptive water-structu...

Seasonal variability of upper ocean heat content in Drake Passage

[1] Mixed-layer depth (MLD) is often used in a mixed-layer heat budget to relate air-sea exchange to changes in the near-surface ocean temperature. In this study, reanalysis heat flux products and profiles from a 15 year time series of high-resolution, near-repeat expendable bathythermograph/expendable conductivity-temperature-depth (XBT/XCTD) sampling in Drake Passage are used to examine the n...

Seasonal to interannual upper-ocean variability in the Drake Passage

Year-round monitoring of the upper-ocean temperature variability in Drake Passage has been undertakensince September 1996 through repeat expendablebathythermograph(XBT) surveys. The closely spaced measurements (6–15 km apart) provide the Ž rst multi-year time series for examining seasonal to interannual variability in this Southern Ocean choke point. While the temperature sections reveal the se...

Processes controlling upper-ocean heat content in Drake Passage

[1] A 16 year record of expendable bathythermograph transects across Drake Passage is used to examine variability in upper-ocean heat content that is not associated with the annual cycle. Links between upper-ocean heat content and anomalous heat fluxes, winds, two large-scale climate indices, and mesoscale eddies and meanders are examined. Results suggest that interannual variations in surface ...

Twenty-Five Years Ago