rotating gyres of the Ross and Weddell Seas. Heat losses to the atmosphere, interactions with the adjacent ice shelves, and salt enrichment by brine ejected from freezing sea ice result in very dense water masses [...] mean wind field. The deep water masses upwelling in the Antarctic Divergence, sucked in from their North Atlantic source regions, are partly driven northward near the surface towards the northern flank of [...] masses which run down the continental slope towards the deep sea floor. The newly formed and well ventilated bottom water underrides, steered by bottom topography, the ACC to fill the deep basins of the