Arnold L. Gordon
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades NY, 10964 USA

Laurie Padman
Earth & Space Research, 3350 SW Cascade Ave., Corvallis, OR 97333-1536, USA

A. Bergamasco
CNR-ISMAR, S.Polo 1364, 30125 Venice, ITALY


Cold, dense water masses generated over the Antarctic continental shelves make a major contribution to the global thermohaline circulation. The volume flux and properties of these waters are constrained by cross-slope exchange and mixing of shelf and offshore water masses along the Antarctic shelf break. Two national programs, the U.S. Antarctic Slope ("AnSlope") experiment and the Italian Climate Long-term Interaction of the Mass balance of Antarctica ("CLIMA") program, have significantly advanced our understanding of processes through intensive measurements in the northwest Ross Sea. This issue contains a collection of four papers that describe the oceanographic environment of this region, and another four papers that report theoretical and numerical models of the Antarctic Slope Front and the contribution of tides. These papers reveal a complex environment in which energetic variability at small spatial and temporal scales has a significant impact on the contribution of Antarctic shelf seas to the circulation of deep water in the global ocean.