ALBATROSS cruise report

This proposal seeks support for a study of the influence of the Scotia Sea on global ocean circulation. During a 35 day research cruise using RRS James Clark Ross, we shall undertake a high quality hydrographic and tracer survey of the southwest Atlantic in the form of an enclosed box. This box incorporates repeats of three hydrographic sections completed during the last decade, so we shall detect any changes in water mass properties. It crosses the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) twice and so enables us to quantify its transport. The Scotia Sea is a region believed to exhibit intense water mass modi?cation. Deep waters from the Weddell Sea escape through narrow passages into the Argentine Basin and are also entrained into the eastward flowing ACC. Deep waters flowing east through Drake Passage are believed to undergo freshening and cooling in the Scotia Sea. When taken together with previous hydrographic sections, our survey will complete a set of boxes, so we shall use inverse techniques to determine horizontal and surface fluxes of heat and freshwater in the Weddell Sea, Scotia Sea and Southwest Atlantic. Thus we shall quantify the r^ole of the Scotia Sea in the ocean-atmosphere climate system.