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

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.