Seasonal and interannual evolution of the mixed layer in the Antarctic Zone south of Tasmania

Abstract

Seasonal and interannual variations of the mixed layer properties in the Antarctic Zone (AZ) south of Tasmania are described using 7 WOCE/SR3 CTD sections and 8 years of summertime SURVOSTRAL XBT and thermosalinograph measurements between Tasmania and Antarctica. The AZ, which extends from the Polar Front (PF) to the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF), is characterized by a 150 m deep layer of cold Winter Water (WW) overlayed in summer by warmer, fresher water mass known as Antarctic Surface Water (AASW). South of Tasmania, two branches of the PF divide the AZ into northern and southern zones with distinct water properties and variability. In the northern AZ (between the northern and southern branches of the PF), the mixed layer depth (MLD) is fairly constant in latitude, being 150 m deep in winter and around 40–60 m in summer. In the southern AZ, the winter MLD decreases from 150 m at the S-PF to 80 m at the SACCF and from 60 to 35 m in summer. Shallower mixed layers in the AZ-S are due to the decrease in the wind speed and stronger upwelling near the Antarctic Divergence. The WW MLD oscillates by ±15 m around its mean value and modest interannual changes are driven by winter wind stress anomalies. The mixed layer is on annual average 1.7 °C warmer, 0.06 fresher and 0.2 kg m −3 lighter in the northern AZ than in the southern AZ. The Levitus (1998) climatology is in agreement with the observed mean summer mixed layer temperature and salinity along the SURVOSTRAL line but underestimates the MLD by 10–20 m. The winter MLD in the climatology is also closed to that observed, but is 0.15 saltier than the observations along the AZ-N of the SR3 line. MLD, temperature and density show a strong seasonal cycle through the AZ while the mixed layer salinity is nearly constant throughout the year. During winter, the AZ MLD is associated with a halocline while during summer it coincides with a thermocline. Interannual variability of the AZ summer mixed layer is partly influenced by large scale processes such as the circumpolar wave which produces a warm anomaly during the summer 1996–1997, and partly by local mechanisms such as the retroflection of the S-PF which introduces cold water across the AZ-N.