Antarctic Circumpolar Water
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
March 29, 2010, 12:00 am
October 31, 2011, 10:39 pm
Schematic diagram of the Antarctic Circumpolar Water. Source: NASA
Antarctic Circumpolar Water (AACW) is a type of water in the seas surrounding Antarctica with temperatures ranging from zero to 0.8 degrees C, salinities from 34.6 to 34.7 ppt, and a depth range from a few hundred meters (m) to about 1000-2000 m M (Tchernia) The AACW is formed from a mixture of overlying North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and underlying (at 1000-2000 m) Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). It has a temperature maximum at around 500-600 m and a salinity maximum between 700-1300 m in depth. This was originally called Warm Deep Water (WDW) by Deacon, but renamed AACW by Sverdrup.
| This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to expand this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion. |
Further Reading:
- Physical Oceanography Index
- Matthias Tomczak and J. Stuart Godfrey. Regional Oceanography: An Introduction. Pergamon, 1994., pp. 83, 287 and
- P. Tchernia. Descriptive Regional Oceanography: An Elementary Description of the Four Main Divisions of the World Ocean, of their Limits, Forms, Topography, Wind Systems, Climatology, Surface Circulation, and Hydrological Characteristics and Structure. Pergamon Press, 1980.
Water mass bodies of the Southern Ocean. Source: Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany 
