Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss the circulation of the Southern Ocean, which is partly unbounded in the zonal direction around Antarctica and which is, therefore, governed by unique dynamics.We start with a description of the special features of the Southern Ocean and a discussion of the dynamics of a homogeneous, wind-driven case with and without topography. We then turn to the role of mesoscale eddies for the meridional overturning circulation of a stratified Southern Ocean and the complete dynamics of the Southern Ocean in a zonally and also in a vertically averaged framework. Based on this knowledge, we construct several simplified models of the Southern Ocean circulation, driven by wind and surface density flux.
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© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Olbers, D., Willebrand, J., Eden, C. (2012). The Circulation of the Southern Ocean. In: Ocean Dynamics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23450-7_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23450-7_16
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23449-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23450-7
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