Weddell Sea
The transport of Weddell Sea Bottom Water out of the Weddell Sea represents the outflow of newly formed bottom water plus entrained bottom water that enters the Weddell Sea from the southeast. Carmack and Foster estimated the production rate of bottom water from the mixing ratio of newly formed bottom water to entrained bottom water. Bottom water formation models based on hydrographic observations suggested that the bottom water formed at the edge of the continental shelf has an initial temperature of -1.4 to -1.2 °C. This range also represents the coldest bottom water observed at the base of the continental slope in the northwestern corner of the Weddell Sea. The fraction of newly formed bottom water in the outflowing WSBW ranges from about 12 to 31%, so the flow of newly formed bottom water out of the Weddell Sea is about 2 to 5 Sv. On the other hand, the much larger production rates sometimes proposed are probably estimates of the total transport of bottom water out of the Weddell Sea that include a large fraction of Antarctic Bottom Water entering the Weddell Sea from the southeast.