Collaborative Research: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current: A Conduit or Blender of Antarctic Bottom Waters?

At present this mapping is not well constrained, with conflicting conclusions drawn in previous studies: at one extreme the ACC has been suggested to be a ``conduit'' that simply allows each variety of AABW to transit directly northward; at the other extreme, it has been suggested that the ACC ``blends'' all shelf AABW sources together before they reach the northern basins. Such conflicts arise, in part, because little is understood about the physics that determines AABW's pathways across the ACC.

To close this gap in understanding, this collaborative project draws on three complementary analytical tools: process-oriented modeling of AABW export across the ACC, a high-resolution global ocean model, and an observationally-constrained estimate of the global circulation. The PIs will first identify and quantify the pathways of AABW across the ACC by using these tools to propagate passive tracers that identify each of the four major AABW formation sites.

They will then use a suite of process model sensitivity experiments to develop a theory for what controls meridional versus inter-basin transport of AABW in the ACC, and transfer this theory to interpret the AABW pathways simulated in the global model. Finally, they will combine the process model, global model and the observationally-constrained circulation product to map the rates at which AABW is transformed into lighter waters, and relate these transformation rates to the diagnosed pathways of AABW across the ACC.

This combination of approaches allow the PIs to not only constrain the three-dimensional circulation of AABW from Antarctica to the northern basins, but also provides a mechanistic understanding of the circulation that can be transferred to past or future climates.