The Antarctic Circumpolar Current ( ACC ) is an ocean current that flows clockwise from west to east around Antarctica.

Associated with the Circumpolar Current is the Antarctic Convergence where the cold Antarctic waters meet the warmer waters of the subantarctic, creating a zone of upwelling nutrients.

Further south still is the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front ( SACCF ), which is determined as the southernmost extent of Circumpolar Deep Water ( temperature of about 2 ° C at 400m ).

Recent studies have indicated that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current varies with time.

Evidence of this is the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave, a periodic oscillation that affects the climate of much of the southern hemisphere.

Trends in the Antarctic Oscillation have been hypothesized to account for an increase in the transport of the Circumpolar Current over the past two decades.

Published estimates of the onset of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current vary, but it is commonly considered to have started at the Eocene / Oligocene boundary.

Studies of phytoplankton stocks in the southern sea have shown that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is dominated by diatoms, while the Weddell Sea has abundant coccolithophorids and silicoflagellates.

An expedition in May 2008 by 19 scientists studied the geology and biology of eight Macquarie Ridge sea mounts, as well as the Antarctic Circumpolar Current to investigate the effects of climate change of the southern Ocean.

Nowling, 1995, On the meridional extent and fronts of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Deep Sea Research, Series I, 42, 641-673.

* Glossary of Physical Oceanography and Related Disciplines Antarctic Circumpolar Current ( ACC )

After the tectonic creation of Drake Passage, when South America fully detached from Antarctica during the Oligocene, the climate cooled significantly due to the advent of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which brought cool deep Antarctic water to the surface.

The South Equatorial Current, flowing west along the equator, swings southward east of New Guinea, turns east at about 50 ° S, and joins the main westerly circulation of the Southern Pacific, which includes the Earth-circling Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

The trend was partly caused by the formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which significantly cooled oceanic water temperatures.

Tens of millions of years ago, continental plate movement formed a land-free gap around Antarctica, allowing formation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current | ACC which keeps warm waters away from Antarctica.

The naturally strong winds of the roaring forties, which blow from west to east, and the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing in the same direction, come up against the warmer Agulhas Current in the region of the cape.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Wave is a coupled ocean / atmosphere wave that circles the Southern Ocean in approximately eight years.

* Jacobs, G. A., and J. L. Mitchell ( 1996 ), Ocean circulation variations associated with the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave.

* Connolley, W. M. ( 2002 ), Long-term variation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Wave, Journal of Geophysical Research.

* Antarctic Circumpolar Wave Description

* The Antarctic Circumpolar Wave: A Beta Effect in Ocean – Atmosphere Coupling over the Southern Ocean

To trace it starting arbitrarily at South America, it flows through the Drake Passage between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula and then is split by the Scotia Arc to the east, with a shallow warm branch flowing to the north in the Falkland Current and a deeper branch passing through the Arc more to the east before also turning to the north.

* The Antarctic CP Current

At least 10 species live in the temperate zone ; one, the Galápagos Penguin, lives as far north as the Galápagos Islands, but this is only made possible by the cold, rich waters of the Antarctic Humboldt Current that flows around these islands.

The Humboldt Current, which originates northwest of the Antarctic Peninsula ( which juts into the Bellingshausen Sea ) and runs the full length of the Chilean coast, makes the water frigid.

* Antarctic Circumpolar Current, an ocean current

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current ( ACC ), or the West Wind Drift, is an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica.

The equivalent polar circle in the Southern Hemisphere is called the Antarctic Circle.

The Antarctic continent, located in the Earth's southern hemisphere, is centered asymmetrically around the South Pole and largely south of the Antarctic Circle.

It is surrounded by the southern waters of the World Ocean – alternatively ( depending on source ), it is washed by the Southern ( or Antarctic ) Ocean or the southern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans.

Some 98 % of Antarctica is covered by the Antarctic ice sheet, the world's largest ice sheet and also its largest reservoir of fresh water.

Western Antarctica is covered by the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Pictured here is the Antarctic toothfish, a sister species.

Antarctic airports are subject to severe restrictions and limitations resulting from extreme seasonal and geographic conditions ; they do not meet ICAO standards, and advance approval from the respective governmental or nongovernmental operating organization is required for landing ( 1999 est.

Still further south lies the Polar front, which is marked by a transition to very cold, relatively fresh, Antarctic Surface Water at the surface.

There is also the Antarctic oscillation, which involves changes in the location and strength of Antarctic winds.

The timing of the opening of the Drake Passage, between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula, is more disputed ; tectonic and sediment evidence show that it could have been open as early as pre 34 Ma, estimates of the opening of the Drake passage are between 20 and 40 Ma.

Antarctic sea ice cycles seasonally, in February – March the amount of sea ice is lowest, and in August – September the sea ice is at its greatest extent.

The West Antarctic ice sheet has warmed by more than 0. 1 ° C / decade in the last 50 years, and is strongest in winter and spring.

This warming of WAIS is strongest in the Antarctic Peninsula.

Much of the biology in the area occurs along the major fronts of the current, the Subtropical, SubAntarctic, and the Antarctic Polar fronts, these are areas associated with well defined temperature changes.

" Daily Telegraph columnist Jasper Rees, likening the changes in explorers ' reputations to climatic variations, suggests that " in the current Antarctic weather report, Scott is enjoying his first spell in the sun for twenty-five years ". The New York Times Book Review was more critical, pointing out Crane's support for Scott's discredited claims regarding the circumstances of the freeing of the Discovery from the pack ice, and concluded " For all the many attractions of his book, David Crane offers no answers that convincingly exonerate Scott from a significant share of responsibility for his own demise.

The cold Benguela current sweeps up from the Antarctic along the Atlantic coast, laden with plankton and providing rich fishing-grounds.

The current Casey Station headquarters ( the " Red Shed ") was built in the late 1980s as part of the Australian Government's Antarctic Re-building Program.

It is part of the Antarctic Treaty System but has been designated no longer " current " in 2011.

The Central Plateau is well within the tropical zone, but altitude and the effect of the southwestern Antarctic current combine to produce a moderate climate.

In the southeast Atlantic Ocean the current retroflects ( turns back on itself ) in the Agulhas Retroflection due to shear interactions with the strong Antarctic Circumpolar Current.

Beneath the ice sheet covering the Antarctic Peninsula, it consists of a string of bedrock islands that are separated by deep channels whose bottoms lie at depths considerably below current sea level and are joined together by a grounded ice sheet.

During the Cenozoic climatic cooling, the Antarctic Peninsula was the last region of Antarctica to have been fully glaciated according to current research.

The current Eden identity features explorers in an unknown environment, such as the deep jungle or the Antarctic, before coming across a landscape, which the logo then forms onto.

This warmer water results in melting of Antarctic ice, thereby reducing density stratification and the strength of the Antarctic Bottom Water current ( AABW ).

The current populations on the other Antarctic islands are believed to be off-shoots of this one colony.

However current and former Australian Antarctic expeditioners continue to use the term informally as a means of identification with the long and continuous history of Australian expeditions to Antarctica.

The ANARE Club is a membership organisation established in 1951 for current and previous members of Australian Antarctic expeditions.

Allendale is the home of climate scientist Nicholas Owens, current director of the British Antarctic Survey.

It is in fact a series of experiments that started in 1993, and its current incarnation, BESS-Polar, was circling the Antarctic from December 13 to December 21, 2004, for a total of 8 days 17 hours and 2 minutes.

Prior to being given its current name by the IAU, this formation had been informally named Mawson ( after the Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson ).

That shifting was likely caused by the impact of a comet on the Earth surface and the current position of Atlantis has to be sought under the Antarctic ice sheet.