le Courant Circumpolaire Antarctique (= Grande Dérive d'Ouest) Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Creator:	Sheila Hardie
Language pair:	din franceză în engleză
Discipline:	-
Definition / notes:	The Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is the most important current in the Southern Ocean, and the only current that flows completely around the globe. The ACC, as it encircles the Antarctic continent, flows eastward through the southern portions of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Edmond Halley, the British astronomer, discovered the ACC while surveying the region during the 1699-1700 HMS Paramore expedition. Later, the famous mariners James Cook in 1772-1775, Thaddeus Bellingshausen (Estonia) in 1819-1821, and James Clark Ross in 1839-1843 described the Atlantic Circumpolar Current in their journals. Cook was the first person to use the term, Southern Ocean, to describe this area. Other notable expeditions were made by Sir Drake, who reached the tip of South America in 1578, Abel Tasman, who sailed south from Australia into the Southern Ocean in 1642, James Weddell in 1823, and by the HMS Challenger in 1873-74 (Deacon, 1984). The ACC is arguably the "mightiest current in the oceans" (Pickard and Emery, 1990). Despite its relatively slow eastward flow of less than 20 cm s-1 in regions between the fronts, the ACC transports more water than any other current (Klinck and Nowlin, 2001). The ACC extends from the sea surface to depths of 2000-4000 m and can be as wide as 2000 km. This tremendous cross-sectional area allows for the current's large volume transport. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current's eastward flow is driven by strong westerly winds. The average wind speed between 40°S and 60°S is 15 to 24 knots with strongest winds typically bewteen 45°S and 55°S. Historically, the ACC has been referred to as the 'West Wind Drift' because the prevailing westerly wind and current are both eastward. http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/southern/antarctic-cp.html
URL:	http://oceancurrents.rsmas.miami.edu/southern/antarctic-cp.html