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Drake Passage 2009: cruise background
Every year, at about this time, the British Antarctic Survey's ship the RSS James Clark Ross leaves Stanley in the Falklands to take scientists and supplies to the Rothera research station on Adelaide Island in the Antarctic Peninsula. And every year oceanographers from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton join the ship for the voyage across Drake Passage.
Drake Passage is a good place to study the global ocean circulation. Here the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is squeezed between the continents of Antarctica and South America. Nearly 140 Sv (140 millon cubic metres of water every second) flows through the gap between Cape Horn and the Antarctic Peninsula. That's 140 times the flow of all the world's rivers.
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The ACC is the only current to flow around the globe without meeting any land barrier. It is the greatest and densest of all the ocean's current, and plays an important part in the global ocean conveyor that transports heat from the equator towards the poles. Understanding the oceanography of Drake Passage is therefore important for understanding the ocean circulation and the role it plays in the Earth's climate system. More information about NOCS research in Drake Passage can be found in Drake Passage and the Southern Ocean |
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Last update: 04 December 2008 |
Contact: o4s@noc.soton.ac.uk |