New Climate Study Probes The World's Largest Ocean Current

The vast icy ocean current that circles around Antarctica is so huge that it carries 100 times more water than all the world's rivers combined, yet its influence on the world's climate is barely understood.

But now, with concern growing about the impact of global climate change, a new international research project aims to use the awesome powers of supercomputers to quickly fill that black hole in our knowledge of the world's largest ocean current.

The joint French-Australian study should make climate-change predictions more accurate but it could also improve weather forecasting in Australia, which feels the chilly influence of its polar neighbour in winter particularly.

"When it comes to the Southern Ocean, we're still 10 to 15 years behind what is known about the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans," says Professor Matthew England, a UNSW oceanographer.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/03/060301093222.htm