Often in the Southern Ocean, it feels like the weather changes so fast that if you look from one side of the ship to the other, the weather is opposite on different sides! I have seen sunny, blue skies looking left on the ship and dark, stormy clouds looking to the right. Let’s take a look into the reasons why the weather is so unique in the Southern Ocean!
The layout of the continents makes a very intense “storm track” in the Southern Ocean. If you look at the Northern Hemisphere, in the 40N-50N latitudes, there is a lot of land. You have North America, Europe and Asia to slow down winds and decrease the intensity of storms. In the Southern Hemisphere, there is less land to inhibit storms, so the conditions can become very intense. With the big storms comes a big swell. The region in the Southern Ocean between the latitudes of 40S-50S is called the “Roaring Forties." Between 50S-60S is the “Furious Fifties,” and above 60S is the “Screaming Sixties.” Right now, we are in the cyclone season, so we expect to see some big storms during our trip back up to Australia!
For our research here, we are most interested in the low-level clouds in the region. These low-level clouds are important for understanding the climate and energy balances in the Southern Ocean.
