Fronts and frontal zones form natural boundaries in the oceans. Their effects are sometimes dramatic when seen from deck level, such as the massive changes in marine life, bird life, and ocean color seen on crossing the Antarctic Polar Front. But they are difficult to locate and costly to study using ships alone, and their intense investigation did not begin until the 1970s with the advent of satellites that could display sea-surface-temperature patterns at high resolution.

Wadhams, P. 2005. Review of Physical Oceanography of Frontal Zones in the Subarctic Seas, by A.G. Kostianoy, J.C.J. Nihoul, and V.B. Rodionov. Oceanography 18(2):260–261, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2005.64.

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