nerc.ac.uk

Characterizing and following eddies in Drake Passage

Gómez-Enri, Jesus; Navarro, Gabriel; Quartly, Graham D; Villares, Pilar. 2007 Characterizing and following eddies in Drake Passage. In: IGARSS 2007: Sensing and Understanding our Planet, Barcelona, Spain, 23-27 July 2007. Piscataway NJ, USA, IEEE, [4pp], 4pp.

Before downloading, please read NORA policies.
[img]
Preview
PDF
IGARSS_2007_DrakeP.pdf

Download (539kB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Drake Passage, the gap between South America and Antarctica, is a very energetic region, with strong currents and numerous eddies. These eddies are important for mixing waters across the main three fronts, and for affecting the biological productivity in the region. We use weekly maps of colour images, sea level anomaly and geostrophic velocities to characterize physical and biological activity in the region surrounding Drake Passage. In particular, we note that the largest eddy kinetic energy occurs to the east of the passage and is principally in the area bounded by the mean Subantarctic Front (SAF) and the mean Polar Front, whilst the biological productivity is highest in coastal regions, with the SAF acting as a clear southern boundary. In a number of cases, cyclonic eddies detected by altimetry also show a strong signature in ocean color. Regular XBT (eXpendable BathyThermograph) surveys provide information on sub-surface structure, confirming the altimetric identification of features and showing that they often contain water masses originating from the other side of the front.

Item Type: Publication - Book Section
Additional Keywords: eddies; altimetry; sea level anomaly chlorophyll concentration, XBT, Drake Passage
Date made live: 04 Jul 2007 +0 (UTC)
URI: https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/146522

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Document Downloads

Downloads for past 30 days

Downloads per month over past year

More statistics for this item...