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Park et al. 2001
Park, Y., Charriaud, E., Craneguy, P. and Kartavtseff, A. (2001). Fronts, transport, and Weddell Gyre at 30°E between Africa and Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research 106: doi: 10.1029/2000JC900087. issn: 0148-0227.

A detailed description of the frontal structure of major currents and estimates of transport between Africa and Antarctica at 30 ¿E were made on the basis of a finely resolved hydrographic section made during the 1996 Civa-2 cruise. Particular emphasis was put on a refinement of the eastern boundary of the Weddell Gyre by analyzing also supplementary hydrographic data from the 1993 Civa-1 cruise and the best available historical hydrographic data in the Weddell and Enderby Basins. Contrary to the general belief, our results show that the Weddell Gyre extends far beyond 30 ¿E, reaching at least as far east as the Enderby Land promontory (53 ¿E). From this point, westward currents along the Antarctic continental margin constitute the gyre's southern boundary, thus closing the cyclonic circulation of the gyre at its easternmost end. As the most convincing evidence for this refined circulation scheme, significant westward transport south of 65 ¿S has been identified from the Civa-1 acoustic Doppler current profiler data. We have shown also, using an inertial jet model, that the blocked feature of the Weddell cold regime (~57 ¿S) to the west of 25 ¿E is due to the topographic control of flow by local bathymetry. During the Civa-2 cruise, ~70% of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) was concentrated near the Polar Front (51 ¿S), with surface speeds reaching up to 70 cm s-1. The baroclinic current field in the subpolar area south of the Weddell Front (58 ¿S for Civa-2 and 57 ¿S for Civa-1) is featureless (<3 cm s-1), but yielding a nonnegligible eastward transport of ~15 Sv (1 Sv=106 m3 s-1). This bottom-referenced baroclinic transport is entirely compensated by a substantial westward barotropic transport south of 65 ¿S. The ACC transport across the 30 ¿E section during the Civa-2 cruise is estimated to be ~160 Sv. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union

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Abstract

Keywords
Oceanography, General, Arctic and Antarctic oceanography, Oceanography, General, Physical and chemical properties of seawater, Oceanography, Physical, Currents, Oceanography, Physical, General circulation
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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