Stephen Rintoul is a physical oceanographer with a keen interest in the role of the ocean in the Earth’s climate system. Born and educated in the USA, he came to Australia in 1990 to join the CSIRO. Stephen’s research has led to a new appreciation of the critical importance of the Southern Ocean in the global pattern of ocean currents that controls the evolution of climate on time scales from years to millennia. His work has also provided important new insights into how ocean currents influence biogeochemistry and the distribution of marine organisms from phytoplankton to penguins. He prefers doing science at sea rather than at a desk and has participated in a dozen expeditions to the Southern, Indian and Pacific oceans. Stephen has received numerous awards from Australia and overseas, most recently being appointed as a CSIRO Fellow, the highest honour bestowed by CSIRO for scientific excellence.

The global influence of the Southern Ocean circulation
by Dr Stephen Rintoul

The geographical accident that creates a circumpolar channel of ocean at the latitude of Drake Passage has a profound impact on global ocean circulation patterns and climate. The strong eastward flow of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) connects the ocean basins, allowing the existence of a global-scale overturning circulation that dominates ocean heat transport. The tilting of density surfaces associated with the flow of the ACC brings dense water to the surface at high latitudes. Water mass transformations where these layers outcrop link the upper and lower limbs of the overturning circulation. Water masses exported from the Southern Ocean ventilate the deep and intermediate layers of the ocean and play an important part in global budgets of heat, freshwater, carbon and nutrients. Stephen will provide an overview of the role of the Southern Ocean in the global climate system and summarise recent evidence for changes underway in the region.

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