Vertical structure and transport of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current in Drake Passage from direct velocity observations

The structure of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) in Drake Passage is examined using 4.5 years of shipboard acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) velocity data. The extended 1000 m depth range available from the 38 kHz ADCP allows us to investigate the vertical structure of the current. The mean observed current varies slowly with depth, while eddy kinetic energy and shear variance exhibit strong depth dependence. Objectively mapped streamlines are self‐similar with depth, consistent with an equivalent barotropic structure. Vertical wavenumber spectra of observed currents and current shear reveal intermediate wavenumber anisotropy and rotation indicative of downward energy propagation above 500 m and upward propagation below 500 m. The mean observed transport of the ACC in the upper 1000 m is estimated at 95 ± 2 Sv or 71% of the canonical total transport of 134 Sv. Mean current speeds in the ACC jets remain quite strong at 1000 m, 10–20 cm s−1. Vertical structure functions to describe the current and extrapolate below 1000 m are explored with the aid of full‐depth profiles from lowered ADCP and a 3 year mean from the Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE). A number of functions, including an exponential, are nearly equally good fits to the observations, explaining >75% of the variance. Fits to an exponentially decaying function can be extrapolated to give an estimate of 154 ± 38 Sv for the full‐depth transport. Key Points The ACC in Drake Passage is equivalent barotropic The transport of the top 1000 m of the ACC is 95 Sv Full depth transport of the ACC is likely higher than 134 Sv