The Physical Context of the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment as Observed by Shipboard Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers
Abstract
The Southern Ocean Iron Experiment in January-February 2002 involved three ships making numerous measurements to help quantify and study two iron-infused patches of water. The main purpose of the study was to investigate the biological and chemical effects of iron fertilization on phytoplankton productivity. Physical processes in the Southern Ocean play a large role in the formation, evolution, and eventual dispersion of natural phytoplankton patches. The Northern (56 S) and Southern (66.5 S) patches were infused with iron sulfate three and four times, respectively, and tracked over a seven week period. Two of the ships, the R/V Revelle and the R/V Melville, were outfitted with 150 kHz narrowband acoustic Doppler current profilers. Good quality velocity data between 20 and 300 m depths are available continuously along the shiptracks. The available transects running south in the vicinity of 170 W, from 52-66.5 S, reveal the zonally banded velocity structure characteristic of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. To the north of the 59-61 S Polar Frontal zone, mesoscale bands of eastward currents up to 0.4 m/s alternate with generally smaller westward bands. Farther south, the alternating structure continues but with smaller eastward velocities of about 0.2 m/s. The Northern iron patch was successfully created in a relatively low-velocity region amidst strong velocities immediately north and south. The overall mean velocity during the initial Northern patch occupation by the R/V Revelle (12-19 January) was small and northward at 0.1 m/s. By the second Revelle occupation of the Northern patch (8-10 February), however, the mean patch velocity was 0.2 m/s to the east-northeast. Significantly, the patch at this time extended across the flank of a strong eastward jet, associated with a sharp surface temperature change from 8-11 C. Whereas the northern end of the North patch experienced a strong 0.5 m/s northeast velocity, the southern end remained in a low-velocity region, resulting in a stretching of the patch.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUFMOS11A0213B
- Keywords:
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- 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography;
- 4512 Currents