Overview
The Antarctic continental shelf, slope and rise cover roughly six million square kilometers, all beneath seasonal or perennial sea ice or under ice shelves and glacier tongues. With an area half the size of the grounded ice sheet and one third the winter maximum sea ice extent, the continental margin ocean circulation can hardly be covered in a single volume. Nevertheless, more than 50 authors attempt here to update our current understanding of this important region, aided by modern ships and improved instrumentation, more realistic conceptual and numerical models, and by historical data and recent observations, often obtained under the most extreme conditions. They address issues ranging from air-sea to ice-ocean interactions, ice crystals to icebergs, regional circulation to circumpolar fronts, tides to bottom topography, and the fate of deep water to the formation of bottom water. Several related sea ice studies appear in Antarctic Sea Ice: Physical Processes, Interactions and Variability, volume 74 in this series.
Synopsis
In this latest oceanology volume of the Antarctic Research Series, polar scientists describe and model air-sea and ice-ocean interactions, the formation and chemistry of deep and bottom waters, regional circulations, tidal heights and currents, ocean bathymetry, interannual variability and the Antarctic Slope Front. With international authorship and interdisciplinary scope, this compilation and the related volumes Antarctic Sea Ice Physical Processes and Antarctic Sea Ice Biological Processes also cover the impacts of ice crystals and icebergs, sea ice biology and geophysics, and the important roles of sea ice in atmospheric and oceanographic processes.
Booknews
Contains 20 papers describing and modeling air-sea and ice-ocean interactions, the formation and chemistry of deep and bottom waters, regional circulations, tidal heights and currents, ocean bathymetry, interannual variability, and the Antarctic Slope Front. Discusses new techniques and new interpretations of data in the field, and examines the impacts of ice crystals and icebergs, sea ice biology and geophysics, and the role of sea ice in atmospheric and oceanographic processes. Includes a separate color map. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.