Abstract
Abstract Constraints on the hydrography and geostrophic velocity shear of the Southern Ocean implicit in its potential vorticity field are discussed and illustrated by diagnostic study of observed and modeled potential vorticity fields. A stress-driven, thermodynamically inactive, eddy-resolving quasigeostrophic model of the Southern Ocean suggests that, through the systematic erosion of potential vorticity gradients by geostrophic eddies, the large-scale flow equilibrates toward a state in which interior potential vorticity gradients are small. Observations of the large-scale isopycnal distribution of potential vorticity (IPV), deduced from climatological hydrographic data, reveal a much richer structure. The most striking feature of the IPV field is the presence of large, near-surface gradients of IPV (a vortocline) coinciding with the axis of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). To the south of this front potential vorticity (PV) is large; to its north, PV has low values, and relative to those foun...
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