Abstract
Results from the Fine Resolution Antarctic Model suggest that much of the eddy activity in the Southern Ocean takes the form of eastward propagating wavelike structures, and there is evidence from altimetry that this may be true of the real Southern Ocean. In the model, eastward propagating waves in the core of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) are separated by a sharp boundary from westward propagating waves to the north. The theory of Rossby wave interactions with a zonal, barotropic current predicts complicated behavior involving the formation of strongly nonlinear critical layers associated with Reynolds stress divergences. The ACC is neither truly zonal, nor is it barotropic, but diagnostic quantities suggested by the idealized models show similar dynamics occurring in this more complicated situation. This interaction between mean flow and Rossby waves may be crucial to understanding how the ACC interacts with bottom topography.
