Abstract: Presently available marine geoid models are not accurate enough to extract the mean surface circulation directly from satellite altimetry. A novel method for estimating the mean velocity field of major ocean current systems is derived from the free surface boundary condition. With a given quasi-geostrophic balance for the horizontal surface flow, a scaling analysis of this boundary condition indicates that although the vertical velocity w is mostly balanced by the local change of the free surface, ???/?t, useful information on the mean current ($\overline{u}$, $\overline{v}$) is contained in a small ageostrophic departure (???/?t ? w). Our method consists in the development of a simple algebraic equation with two unknowns ($\overline{u}$, $\overline{v}$) and an adjustable parameter $\widetilde{\alpha}$ associated with ???/?t, assuming that the latter is proportional to (???/?t ? w). Most interestingly, ???/?t and all other coefficients of the equation can be determined from altimetry. The altimeter data used is combined TOPEX/Poseidon-ERS gridded data, and the solution is obtained by least squares, minimizing the contribution from the time-variable part of the parameter $\widetilde{\alpha}$ and prescribing the zonal direction of the mean current. The method, which is found to be particularly useful for quasi-zonal high-energy current systems, has been validated against direct observations in the Gulf Stream and Southern Ocean. Comparisons with direct observations and Monte Carlo experiments suggest an overall solution error of about 10 cm s?1. Once calibrated against regional velocity statistics, this method will be able to determine from altimetry the mean or instantaneous surface velocity field down to the frontal scale, with a realism that has been inaccessible because of the geoid constraint.

Abstract: Two-dimensional (2-D) statistical distributions of spectral power and coherence of polar geomagnetic variations with quasi-periods about 10 min are analyzed using data from magnetometer arrays in Antarctica. Examination of the 2-D patterns of spectral power and coherence shows the occurrence of significant variations in geomagnetic power levels but with low spatial coherence near the cusp projection and in the auroral region. At the same time, low-amplitude pulsations, which we coin Pi cap
3 pulsations, are very coherent throughout the polar cap. The region occupied by coherent Pi cap
3 pulsations is shifted toward local MLT night from the geomagnetic pole and is decoupled from the regions of auroral and cusp ULF activity. The spectral power varies with time at polar latitudes in a manner different from that at auroral latitudes. Diurnal variations of power at different stations at the same geomagnetic latitude exhibit different behavior depending on the station's position relative to geomagnetic and geographic poles. This asymmetry is shown to be partly attributed to the variations of the ionospheric conductance. The primary source of polar pulsations is probably related to intermittent magnetosheath turbulence and tail lobe oscillations, though a particular propagation mechanism has not as yet been identified.

Abstract: Precipitation data from the new ERA40 reanalyses and from a 200-year simulation confirm a robust main mode of precipitation variability in west Antarctica. An intermittently strong ENSO signature is found in this mode. However, high correlation with ENSO indices appears infrequent. Thus, the high correlation found in ERA40, and previously in other chronologically realistic data, in the late 1980s and the 1990s may not be expected to last. Unlike previously suggested by others, the sign of the correlation between ENSO indices and west Antarctic precipitation, when significant, does not appear to change in time: Precipitation variability at the ENSO pace in the Bellingshausen-Weddell (Ross-Amunsden) region is consistently in phase (phase opposition, respectively) with the Southern Oscillation Index. This is consistent with a tropospheric wave train connecting the tropical Pacific and west Antarctic regions, which modulates in phase opposition the advection of air and moisture in the 2 regions.