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Abstract

The Antarctic Slope Current is guided by the topographic gradient of the continental slope and acts as a dynamical barrier between the continental shelf and the open ocean. Exchanges of water masses across the shelf break are important for future predictions of the Antarctic ice shelves and the ventilation of the deep ocean. The Antarctic Slope Current is surface-intensified in many regions but bottom-intensified in regions of dense overflows. This study investigates the role of dense overflows in contributing to the dynamics of the bottom-intensified flow using a 0.1° global ocean-sea ice model. The occurrence of the bottom-intensification is tightly linked to dense overflows and bottom speeds correlate with dense overflows on interannual time scales. A lack of vertical connectivity between the bottom and surface flow, however, suggests that the along-slope bottom water flows are coincidentally co-located with the Antarctic Slope Current, rather than dynamically a part of the current.