Numerical models of ocean dynamics will be used to address two key aspects of dense water formation and modification process on the antarctic continental shelves. They pertain to: 1) the export of dense water from the shelf; and 2) its descent down the slope. These studies are justified by new hypotheses on bottom water formation and seek to facilitate the parameterization of such processes in global climate models. This modeling study is closely related to a ship-based study that will investigate how the Antarctic Slope Front and continental slope morphology determine the exchanges of mass, heat, and fresh water between the shelf and the deep ocean, in particular those leading to outflows of dense water into intermediate and deep layers of the adjacent basins and into the world ocean circulation While the importance to the global ocean circulation and climate of cold water masses originating in the Antarctic is unquestioned, the processes by which these water masses enter the deep ocean circulation are not. The primary goal of the experimental work is to identify the principal physical processes that govern the transfer of shelf-modified dense water into intermediate and deep layers of the adjacent deep ocean. At the same time, it seeks to understand the compensatory poleward flow of waters from the oceanic regime. This work will help to provide the dynamical framework for the observations and synthesize the observations into a coherent whole.
