Float Observations of the Southern Ocean. Part I: Estimating Mean Fields, Bottom Velocities, and Topographic Steering

Abstract

Autonomous Lagrangian Circulation Explorer (ALACE) floats are used to examine mean flow and eddy fluxes at 900-m depth in the Southern Ocean. Mean temperature and dynamic topography from float data are consistent with earlier estimates from hydrographic surveys, although floats imply warmer temperatures and narrower frontal structures than do atlas data. Differences between hydrographic and ALACE dynamic topography suggest the presence of eastward bottom velocities of about 2 cm s?1 below the eastward-flowing jets of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Flow is steered by bathymetry and can be represented as an equivalent barotropic system with an e-folding depth of about 700 m.