Frontal zone mixing and Antarctic Bottom water formation in the southern Weddell Sea

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Abstract

Hydrographic section with closely spaced stations, occupied in the southern Weddell Sea during the International Weddell Sea Oceanographic Expedition aboard the USCGC Glacier in austral summer 1973, were used to investigate the mixing in the frontal zone near the shelf break. The Warm Deep Water is modified by mixing with Winter Water before it intrudes on the shelf. This Modified Warm Deep Water then mixes with highly saline Western Shelf Water to form cold Weddell Sea Bottom Water. Formation of bottom water probably takes place on the southern shelf of the Weddell Sea west of somewhere between 29 and 40°W. The classically defined Antarctic Bottom Water forms when the Weddell Sea Bottom Water mixes with the Warm Deep Water above as it flows out of the sea to the east.

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