Circumpolar Influences on the Weddell Sea: Indication of an Antarctic Circumpolar Coastal Wave

The Antarctic Circumpolar Wave is now a well-known feature that can bedetected in atmospheric, oceanic mixed layer, and sea ice data. Inour coupled ice-ocean model driven by 40 years of daily atmosphericforcing data it represents a significant part of the interannualvariability, linking the sea ice and water mass formation processes inthe Weddell Sea with other areas in the Antarctic water ring. Inaddition our model results show a decadal-period wavelike anomalypattern near the coast of Antarctica, propagating westward at about 2cm/s. This coastally trapped, bottom-intensified phenomenonseems to have important effects on the dense water formation rate inthe Weddell Sea and even the occurrence of the Weddell polynya.