Skip to main content
Log in

Vertical Thermohaline Structure, Water Masses, and Large-Scale Fronts in the Southwest Atlantic and Neighboring Antarctic Water Areas

  • Published:
Physical Oceanography

Abstract

The vertical profiles of temperature and salinity are classified by using the contemporary array of actual and monthly average archive oceanographic data. A scheme of decomposition of the investigated water area into zones according to the typical features of vertical stratification of the thermohaline field is proposed. The criterion of maximum of the horizontal temperature and salinity gradients is used to select and map the principal large-scale frontal boundaries. The parameters of fronts and some regularities of their seasonal variability are described and the data on water masses interacting in the analyzed system of fronts are presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  1. A. L. Gordon, D. T. Georgi, and H. M. Taylor, “Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone in Western Scotia Sea, summer 1975,” J. Phys. Oceanogr., 7, No. 3, 309–328 (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  2. É. I. Sarukhanyan and N. P. Smirnov, Water Masses and Circulation in the South Ocean [in Russian], Leningrad, Gidrometeoizdat (1986).

    Google Scholar 

  3. R. G. Peterson and L. Stramma, “Upper-level circulation in the South Atlantic Ocean,” Progr. Oceanogr., 26, 1–73 (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  4. S. Levitus and P. T. Boyer, “World Ocean Atlas,” in: U.S. CD-ROM Data Sets, Washington, DC, National Oceanographic Data Center, Ocean Climate Laboratory (1994).

    Google Scholar 

  5. S. Levitus, M. Conkright, P. T. Boyer, et al., “Results of the IOC Global Oceanographic Data Archaeology and Rescue (GODAR) project,” in: U.S. CD-ROM. NOAA NESDIS Techn. Rep. (1998).

  6. J. van Ryzin (editor), Classification and Clustering, New York, Academic Press (1977).

    Google Scholar 

  7. N. P. Bulgakov, P. D. Lomakin, and V. A. Rybalka, “Investigation of the hydrophysical structure of the Caribbean Sea with the help of cluster analysis,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk Ukr. SSR, Ser. B, No. 12, 12–15 (1988).

    Google Scholar 

  8. N. P. Bulgakov, L. A. Voskresenskaya, E. A. Skripaleva, et al., “Climatic horizontal gradients of thermohaline characteristics in the Tropical Atlantic,” Morsk. Gidrofiz. Zh., No. 4, 30–46 (2000).

    Google Scholar 

  9. V. N. Stepanov, E. N. Agapitov, and A. M. Gritsenko, Thermohaline Stratification of Waters in the World Ocean [in Russian], Moscow, Nauka (1984).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Yu. V. Artamonov, N. P. Bulgakov, and P. D. Lomakin, “Vertical thermohaline structure and climatic fronts in the Southwest Atlantic,” Morsk. Gidrofiz. Zh., No. 6, 56–66 (2000).

  11. N. P. Bulgakov, Convection in the Ocean [in Russian], Moscow, Nauka (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  12. S. S. Jacobs and D. T. Georgi, “Observations in the southwest Indian/Atlantic Ocean,” in: A Voyage of Discovery, Oxford (1977), pp. 43–84.

  13. N. P. Bulgakov, V. V. Ukrainskii, Yu. I. Popov, et al., “Structure and kinematics of waters in the region of the Argentine Islands in autumn 1998,” Morsk. Gidrofiz. Zh., No. 5, 41–50 (1999).

    Google Scholar 

  14. G. E. R. Deacon and J. A. Moorey, “The boundary regions between currents from the Weddell Sea and Drake Passage,” Deep-Sea Res., 22, No. 4, 265–268 (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  15. N. P. Bulgakov, Yu. V. Artamonov, and P. D. Lomakin, “Distinctive features of the structure of waters in the zone of confluence of the Scotia and Weddell Seas in summer of the Southern Hemisphere,” Dop. Nats. Akad. Nauk Ukr., No. 7, 127–132 (2002).

    Google Scholar 

  16. B. V. Afanas'ev and V. V. Maslennikov, Oceanological Conditions in Summer 1982 in the Southern Part of the Scotia Sea and in the Northern Part of the Weddell Sea [in Russian], Preprint VNIRO, Moscow (1983).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Artamonov, Y.V., Bulgakov, N.P., Lomakin, P.D. et al. Vertical Thermohaline Structure, Water Masses, and Large-Scale Fronts in the Southwest Atlantic and Neighboring Antarctic Water Areas. Physical Oceanography 14, 161–172 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POCE.0000048898.31072.cc

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:POCE.0000048898.31072.cc

Keywords

Navigation