Episodic bouts of divergence and convergence are observed primarily in response to storm impulses at the leading and trailing edges of low pressure systems, respectively. Figure 2 shows the mean synoptic and ice-motion situation accompanying the ice drift in this region of the central Weddell Sea. Geostrophic winds are observed to change from southerlies to westerlies during this interval, as a consequence of the eastward passage of the low pressure trough, while the SAR motion vectors show a convergence in response to winds which become southerly with proximity to the Antarctic coast. Results New ice kinematics datasets yield a variety of important new information on the seasonal to interannual variability in Antarctic ice dynamics, and the processes linking storms with mesoscale ice divergence. Figure 3 .
White lines indicate streamlines of drift, and the color coding indicates the drift speed.
Reappearance of the Weddell Polynya in scatterometer image August 1994. The orange line indicates the cruise track of the Nathaniel Palmer during the Anzflux experiment. Appearance of a large polynya in this region was previously documented by Drinkwater et al. The measured outflow of cold Antarctic bottom water appears to be closely related to the ice production and salt rejection during polynya formation events. Figure 5 .