ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights how satellite altimetry has helped to illuminate the circulation and dynamics of the Southern Ocean and shows how altimetry has been used to identify the position of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current fronts. It describes the use of altimetry to characterize the four-dimensional temperature and salinity structure of the Southern Ocean and evaluates transport variability and changes in the strength of the current. The chapter considers the dynamics governing the Southern Ocean circulation through the lens of eddy kinetic energy and its temporal changes, as seen from altimetry. It deals with the key contributions from altimetry to Southern Ocean research and considers where future research might lead. Spatial variations in the Earth's geoid determine roughly 99% of the time-averaged spatial structure of the absolute sea surface measured by altimetry. Satellite altimetry can observe large-scale, time-varying spatial structures but nothing below the ocean surface, so satellites are not always the obvious tool for reconstructing three-dimensional oceanic fields.
