Abstract
Dynamics of the three-dimensional structure of the wind-driven Deacon cell in a β -plane channel are discussed in a homogeneous model in the presence of a sufficiently high ridge. The emphasis is on the water mass balance: how the northward surface Ekman drift is returned. It is demonstrated that a sufficiently high ridge can break up the geostrophic constraint and a net geostrophic volume flux across the open latitude band is allowed. It is found that: (1) the Deacon cell is a fundamentally three-dimensional structure, (2) wind forcing can drive an inter-basin water mass exchange in the Southern Ocean , and (3) zonal through-channel transport in the circumpolar ocean varies at different longitudes.
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