Antarctic Zone (Geography)
Antarctic Zone
The Antarctic Zone (AZ), in oceanography, is the region in the Southern Ocean between the Polar Front to the north and the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front to the south. The AZ is one of four distinct surface water mass regimes in the Southern Ocean, the others being the Continental Zone (CZ) to the south and the Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) and Subantarctic Zone (SAZ) to the north.
In more general usage the Antarctic Zone is often taken to be the Section of the earth's surface lying between the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole. 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 (Antarctic Zone)
- Alejandro H. Orsi, Thomas Whitworth III, and Worth D. Nowlin Jr. On the meridional extent and fronts of the antarctic circumpolar current. Deep-Sea Research, 42:641–673, 1995.
