Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
DOI
10.3389/fmars.2025.1612637
Publication Title
Frontiers in Marine Science
Volume
12
Pages
1612637
Abstract
Subpolar frontal zones are characterized by energetic storms, intense seasonal cycles, and close connectivity with surrounding continental shelf topography. At the same time, predicting the ocean state depends on appropriate partition of resolved and parameterized dynamics, the latter of which requires understanding the dynamical processes generating diffusivity throughout the water column. While submesoscale frontal instabilities are shown to produce turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and mixing in the surface boundary layer (SBL) of the global ocean, their development in complex dynamical regimes (e.g., elevated preexisting turbulence, large ageostrophic shear, or in proximity to topographic boundaries) is less understood. This study investigates the development of submesoscale instabilities, i.e. symmetric instability (SI) and centrifugal instability (CI), near topographic boundaries using a hindcast model of the Drake Passage and Scotia Sea region. The model suggests subsurface SI and CI are widespread along the northern continental margins of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) due to topographic shearing of the anticyclonic side of Polar Front jets. Forced instabilities may facilitate persistent mixing along Namuncurá - Burwood Bank, as well as in other southern (northern) hemisphere currents with low potential vorticity and a seamount or sloping topography on the left- (right-) downstream side.
Rights
© 2025 Ferris, Gong and Klinck.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Data Availability
Article states: "ROMS model output is archived with William & Mary Scholar Works (https://doi.org/10.25773/8wqm-7r04). Operational Mercator used for the ROMS (https://github.com/myroms) model is made freely available by the EU Copernicus Marine Service (https://marine.copernicus.eu/)."
Original Publication Citation
Ferris, L., Gong, D. L., & Klinck, J. (2025). Topographic forcing of submesoscale instability in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12, 1-13, Article 1612637. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1612637
Repository Citation
Ferris, Laur; Gong, Donglai; and Klinck, John, "Topographic Forcing of Submesoscale Instability in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current" (2025). CCPO Publications. 407.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ccpo_pubs/407
ORCID
0000-0003-4312-5201 (Klinck)