High-resolution simulation of the global ocean, showing the evolution of sea surface temperature over a 3-year cycle.

This animation shows the rich dynamics of eddies and jets in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, which act to mix ocean waters. It shows a high-resolution (1/20°) regional simulation of the Southern Ocean, including a peek at a submesoscale (1/80°) resolving nested simulation. 

By Isa Rosso, Stuart Ramsden, Andreas Klocker and Andy Hogg.

The visualization was produced through a collaboration between Andy Hogg, UNSW collaborators and the National Computational Infrastructure’s VizLab team. It reveals waterfalls of cold dense water that plummet two kilometres off the Antarctic continental shelf into the abyss, forming the bottom water of the global oceans.

See more Climate & Fluid Physics movies on our Youtube channel.