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The southwestern Atlantic Ocean has one of the largest and most productive continental shelves of the southern hemisphere. Despite its relevance, its circulation patterns have been largely inferred from hydrographic observations and numerical models. Here we describe the variability of the shelf circulation based on the analysis of 11 months of multilevel currents measured by two bottom‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers deployed over the continental shelf at 39°S. The record‐length mean is 12 and 13 cm/s in the upper layer and decreases to 6 and 8 cm/s near the bottom, at the deployment nearer and further from the coast, respectively. The mean flow direction is toward the NE, following the orientation of the isobaths. Measurements at both sites show that the alongshore barotropic component accounts for 83% of the variability observed and are well correlated (0.86), suggesting a relatively uniform flow, which is presumably driven by large‐scale forcing. Indeed, large‐scale wind stress patterns dominate the temporal variability of the in situ currents and the passage of atmospheric fronts induces significant changes in the observed currents at all depths. We found that for 12% of the measurements the currents reverse the direction to the SW in response to these atmospheric patterns. Furthermore, the analysis of sea surface height reconstructed from bottom pressure measurements at both sites and from a coastal tide gauge reveals that the variability of the alongshore currents is driven by the cross‐shore pressure gradients generated by the alongshore wind stress. Key Points: Eleven months of in situ velocities at two sites of the Argentine continental shelf are analyzedThe barotropic component explains 83% of the total variance and the alongshore velocities at the two sites are highly correlated (0.86)Alongshore wind stress causes across‐shore pressure gradients that modify the alongshore currents [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An up‐to‐date map of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) fronts is constructed from the latest version of mean dynamic topography (MDT) from satellite altimetry and reveals the narrowest ACC width in the Udintsev Fracture Zone (UFZ), with the strongest concentration of the three major ACC fronts within a limited distance as short as 170 km, about 40% narrower than that at Drake Passage. At 144°W, at the entrance of the UFZ, which lies between the Pacific‐Antarctic Ridge (PAR) and its eastwardly offset segment (offset PAR segment), there is a triple confluence of the Subantarctic Front, Polar Front, and Southern ACC Front. Downstream of this longitude, the Subantarctic Front progressively meanders northward over the relatively shallow offset PAR segment before channeling through the Eltanin Fracture Zone, thus diverging from the Polar Front which proceeds through the UFZ. In situ observations from two recent cruises at 144°W confirm the satellite altimetry‐derived frontal circulation in the UFZ region and yield a baroclinic transport relative to the bottom of 113 × 106 m3/s, comparable to that through Drake Passage. The hydrographic sections show no Antarctic bottom water colder than 0.2 °C. Characteristics of major water masses are described, and the implications for their potential downstream modifications at Drake Passage are discussed in terms of the meridional overturning circulation across the ACC. Mesoscale eddy activity with periods shorter than 90 days is predominantly concentrated in the immediate downstream area of the offset PAR segment, suggesting a substantial poleward eddy heat flux there. Key Points: The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is only 170 km wide in the Udintsev Fracture Zone, forming the narrowest circumpolar choke pointFirst observations of high‐quality hydrography in the Udintsev Fracture Zone show no Antarctic bottom water colder than 0.2 °CThe Udintsev Fracture Zone is a suitable site for a long‐term monitoring of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tarnished plant bug, Lygus lineolaris (Palisot de Beauvois) (Hemiptera: Miridae), causes severe damages in strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa Duchesne ex Rozier; Rosaceae) fields in Québec, Canada. Currently, only chemical insecticides successfully control that major pest. Lygus lineolaris aggregate in trap crops such as buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench; Polygonaceae) and white mustard (Sinapis alba Linnaeus; Brassicaceae) but do not remain long enough on these plants to significantly reduce damages on strawberries. However, the attractiveness of the trap crop gives the opportunity to gather L. lineolaris in an area of the field where chemical treatments could be applied more efficiently. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of the combination of trap crop (buckwheat and white mustard) and chemical treatments to control L. lineolaris. Randomised complete-block design included treatment with either no trap crop, buckwheat, or white mustard row planted close to strawberry plants. Half blocks were treated with insecticide (cypermethrin) sprayed on strawberry plants (in treatment without trap crop) or directly on trap crop. We found that L. lineolaris was more abundant on buckwheat than on white mustard or strawberry plants. Insecticide application on trap crops reduced the population on these hosts, but did not reduce L. lineolaris on adjacent strawberry plants. Behavioural avoidance and physiological pesticide resistance could explain this result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current and pressure-recording inverted echo sounders (CPIES) were deployed in an eddy-resolving local dynamics array (LDA) in the eddy-rich polar frontal zone (PFZ) in Drake Passage as part of the cDrake experiment. Methods are described for calculating barotropic and baroclinic geostrophic streamfunction and its first, second, and third derivatives by objective mapping of current, pressure, or geopotential height anomaly data from a two-dimensional array of CPIES like the cDrake LDA. Modifications to previous methods result in improved dimensional error estimates on velocity and higher streamfunction derivatives. Simulations are used to test the reproduction of higher derivatives of streamfunction and to verify mapping error estimates. Three-day low-pass-filtered velocity in and around the cDrake LDA can be mapped with errors of 0.04 m s−1 at 4000 dbar, increasing to 0.13 m s−1 at the sea surface; these errors are small compared to typical speeds observed at these levels, 0.2 and 0.65 m s−1, respectively. Errors on vorticity are 9 × 10−6 s−1 near the surface, decreasing with depth to 3 × 10−6 s−1 at 4000 dbar, whereas vorticities in the PFZ eddy field are 4 × 10−5 s−1 (surface) to 1.3 × 10−5 s−1 (4000 dbar). Vorticity gradient errors range from 4 × 10−10 to 2 × 10−10 m −1 s−1, just under half the size of typical PFZ vorticity gradients. Comparisons between cDrake mapped temperature and velocity fields and independent observations (moored current and temperature, lowered acoustic Doppler current profiler velocity, and satellite-derived surface currents) help validate the cDrake method and results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A time series of velocity profile in the upper 150 m of the equatorial Atlantic was gathered at 23W in 2002 within the PIRATA program. It constitutes the first time series of near surface current measurements simultaneous with altimetric data in the equatorial Atlantic. The surface slope anomaly along the equator is computed from satellite altimetry, and, as a proxy for the pressure gradient along the equator, compared with the wind and near surface current data. In a first step, a time series of the surface slope anomaly along the equator in the Atlantic is computed from the 10-year-long TOPEX/Poseidon sea level anomalies. A sensitivity study establishes the robustness of the calculation. Apart from a 15 cm bias, the equatorial sea surface slope anomalies estimated either from TOPEX/Poseidon or from Jason over the 6-month overlap (Feb.-Aug. 2002) do not reveal drastic differences. We produce two sea surface slope anomaly composite time series for 2002 (one with T/P data, the other with Jason data during the commissioning phase) and compare them to the wind and velocity data at 23W. As expected, the near surface velocity and depth of the upper limit of the equatorial undercurrent (EUC) are extremely well correlated with the surface pressure gradient anomaly, 10-year-long time series of altimetry-derived zonal sea surface slope anomaly and ECMWF ERA40 wind stress are also well correlated. They exhibit similar spectral content and similar anomalous years. This is a first step towards a full analysis of the EUC dynamics using altimetry, PIRATA data (near surface current and subsurface thermohaline structure) and model. These initial comparisons reinforce the utility of Jason measurements for continuing the 10-year and highly accurate TOPEX/Poseidon time series for study of equatorial signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved version of the global hydrodynamic tide solutions [finite element solutions (FESs) FES94, FES95.2.1, and FES98] has been developed, implemented, and validated. The new model is based on the resolution of the tidal barotropic equations on a global finite element grid without any open boundary condition, which leads to solutions independent of in situ data (no open boundary conditions and no assimilation). The accuracy of these "free" solutions is improved by assimilating tide gauge and TOPEX/Poseidon (T/P) altimeter information through a representer assimilation method. This leads to the FES99 version of this model. For the eight main constituents of the tidal spectrum (M[sub 2], S[sub 2], N[sub 2], K[sub 2], 2N[sub 2], K[sub 1], O[sub 1], and Q[sub 1]), about 700 tide gauges and 687 T/P altimetric measurements are assimilated. An original algorithm is developed to calculate the tidal harmonic constituents at crossover points of the T/P altimeter database. Additional work is performed for the S[sub 2] wave by reconsidering the inverse barometer correction. To complete the spectrum, 19 minor constituents have been added by admittance. The accuracy of FES99 is evaluated against the former FESs. First, it is compared to two tide gauge datasets: ST95 (95 open-ocean measurements) and ST739 (739 coastal measurements). For ST95, the root-sum square of the differences between observations and solutions is reduced from 2.8 (FES95.2.1) to 2.4 cm (FES99), a gain of 17% in overall accuracy. Second, the variance of the sea surface variability is calculated and compared for FES95.2.1, FES98, and FES99 at the T/P and the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2) crossover data points. FES99 performed best, with a residual standard deviation for the independent ERS-2 dataset of 13.5 cm (15.2 cm for FES95.2.1). Third, tidal predictions are implemented for the FESs to provide along-track estimates of the sea surface variability for T/P and ERS-2. Compared to ERS-2,... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the data from the sea level observation network initiated by the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) by using a least squares method. WOCE sea level dataset; Role of tides in sea surface variations; Harmonic analysis based on the least squares method; Estimation of error of tidal parameters.