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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]

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]

Abstract: A high-resolution, full-depth, hydrographic section across Drake Passage with tracers and horizontal velocity measurements was repeated within three weeks in austral summer 2006. In-situ data (temperature, salinity, dissolved-oxygen and horizontal current velocities) are used to determine the location of the fronts and eddies of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) inferred by from 7-day composite dynamic topography maps along the transect. Frontal displacements are about 40km (2 stations) along the section. Considerable differences in properties between the two sections are observed throughout the whole water column with values as high as 0.2°C in temperature, 0.01 in salinity, 0.03kgm−3 in neutral density and 10μmolkg−1 in dissolved-oxygen concentration found below a depth of 3000m. Only part of the differences is attributable to frontal or eddy displacements along the section. The other part results from the spatial heterogeneity of water properties upstream the section and the funnelling of the flow due to the topographic constraints of the Shackleton Fracture Zone (SFZ). The considerable short-term differences in water properties in rather large-scale structures that cannot be accounted for by frontal motions along the section call for caution when interpreting differences in hydrographical properties obtained by oceanographic cruises that are years apart in terms of climatic signals. The two sections show efficient ventilation of Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW) by Winter Water (WW) in the Yaghan Basin, with an estimated eddy-enhanced subduction rate of over 170myear−1. The SFZ constitutes a barrier, causing the two Southern ACC Fronts (SACCF) branches to separate by about 400km and creating sheltered conditions in partial isolation from the ACC, while promoting an active recirculation region in the Ona Basin. This active recirculation, marked by cyclonic eddies carrying cold, fresh and oxygenated water from south of the Southern Boundary of the ACC, causes effective ventilation of the whole Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) density range. The differences in small-scale structures between the two sections deserve further analyses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A multiparametric analysis is applied on the ANT-XXIII/3 bottle data to determine the spreading and mixing of water masses across Drake Passage during January–February 2006, focusing our interest on the flow of the deep water masses. Mixing proportions are quantified along both the southward and northward journeys between the tip of South America and the Antarctic Peninsula. The method is sensitive enough to detect a marked variability in the flow pathways of the Circumpolar Deep Water, the Southeast Pacific Deep Water (SPDW) and the Weddell Sea Deep Water at the intersection of the Shackleton Fracture Zone (SFZ) and the West Scotia Ridge (WSR) between the southward and northward journeys. Indeed the presence of a sharp meander of the southern branch of the Polar Front (PFS) together with the displacement of the northern branch of the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCFN) above the complex bathymetric structure of the WSR induced a strong perturbation in the deep flow field during the southward journey. The height of the SFZ crests clearly sets the lower limit of the SPDW in the Ona Basin. An enhanced δ3He signature is confined to the north of the Polar Front between 55.5°S and 56.5°S in the 1500–2200m depth range. It clearly indicates the signature of the core of the Southeast Pacific Deep Slope Water. The entry pathway in the ACC of the SPDSW during ANT-XXIII/3 was farther to the south off the continental slope of South America than it was during the WOCE A21 expedition in 1990, probably due to the sharp changes in the slope orientation at the extreme tip of the South America. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]