The Antarctic Circumpolar Current between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia

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Abstract
Hydrographic and lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler data along a line from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia via the Maurice Ewing Bank are used to estimate the flow of circumpolar water into the Argentine Basin, and to study the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current with the Falkland Plateau. The estimated net transport of 129 ± 21 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) across the section is shared between three major current bands. One is associated with the Subantarctic Front (SAF; 52 ± 6 Sv), and the other two with branches of the Polar Front (PF) over the sill of the Falkland Plateau (44 ± 9 Sv) and in the northwestern Georgia Basin (45 ± 9 Sv). The latter includes a local reinforcement (∼20 Sv) by a deep anticyclonic recirculation around the Maurice Ewing Bank. While the classical hydrographic signature of the PF stands out in this eastbound branch, it is less distinguishable in the northbound branch over the plateau. Other circulation features are a southward entrainment of diluted Nor... Abstract Hydrographic and lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler data along a line from the Falkland Islands to South Georgia via the Maurice Ewing Bank are used to estimate the flow of circumpolar water into the Argentine Basin, and to study the interaction of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current with the Falkland Plateau. The estimated net transport of 129 ± 21 Sv (Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) across the section is shared between three major current bands. One is associated with the Subantarctic Front (SAF; 52 ± 6 Sv), and the other two with branches of the Polar Front (PF) over the sill of the Falkland Plateau (44 ± 9 Sv) and in the northwestern Georgia Basin (45 ± 9 Sv). The latter includes a local reinforcement (∼20 Sv) by a deep anticyclonic recirculation around the Maurice Ewing Bank. While the classical hydrographic signature of the PF stands out in this eastbound branch, it is less distinguishable in the northbound branch over the plateau. Other circulation features are a southward entrainment of diluted Nor...

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