The region near 60S, south of the Antarctic Polar Front, where high-salinity North Atlantic Deep Water upwells from 2500 m to just below the surface and mixes with low- salinity Antarctic Surface Wate
r.
The semipermanent, semicontinuous front between the antarctic air of Antarctica and the polar air of the southern oceans; generally comparable to the arctic front of the Northern Hemisphere.
A region of high pressure that occupies central Antarctic throughout the year. This pressure system is responsible for very cold temperatures and extremely low humidity.
A water mass identified by a salinity minimum found at depths between 700 and 1000 m in the Southern Hemisphere. It is formed at various locations along the Antarctic Polar Front and through deep wint
er convection east of southern Chile and south of the Great Australian Bight. It enters all oceans with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and spreads toward the equator between the central water and the deep water.
A phenomenon discovered in the mid-1980s that occurs in the winter-spring lower stratosphere over Antarctica. Through a sequence involving heterogeneous chemistry on polar stratospheric clouds and (in
termittent) illumination by sunlight, much or all of the ozone in the lower stratosphere can be photochemically destroyed. Halogen species (chlorine and bromine) contained in fairly robust molecules are transformed via heterogeneous reactions into molecules that are easily photolyzed resulting in atomic or monoxide halogens that lead to chemical destruction of ozone. This phenomenon also occurs over the Arctic, although to a lesser extent because of a lower incidence of polar stratospheric clouds.
The southern front of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, also known as the antarctic convergence, that separates the Antarctic Zone in the south from the polar frontal zone in the north. It is charact
erized by sea surface temperatures near 5-6C and a salinity minimum of 33.8-34.0 psu produced by high rainfall.
1.The region between the Antarctic Polar Front and the Continental Water Boundary. 2.Geographically, the region between the Antarctic Circle (66 deg 32 min S) and the South Pole. Climatically, the lim
it of the zone may be set at about 60S, poleward of which the prevailing westerly winds give place to easterly or variable winds. Over most of this region the average temperature does not rise above 0C (32F) even in summer.