Articles | Volume 16, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-323-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-323-2020
Research article
 | 
12 Mar 2020
Research article |  | 12 Mar 2020

Tracking the spread of a passive tracer through Southern Ocean water masses

Jan D. Zika, Jean-Baptiste Sallée, Andrew J. S. Meijers, Alberto C. Naveira-Garabato, Andrew J. Watson, Marie-Jose Messias, and Brian A. King

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Cited articles

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The ocean can regulate climate by distributing heat and carbon dioxide into its interior. This work has resulted from a major experiment aimed at understanding how that distribution occurs. In the experiment an artificial tracer was released into the ocean. After release the tracer was tracked as it was distorted by ocean currents. Using novel methods we reveal how the tracer's distortions follow the movement of the underlying water masses in the ocean and we estimate the rate at which it mixes.