scholarly journals The Fate of the Southern Weddell Sea Continental Shelf in a Warming Climate

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 4337-4350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartmut H. Hellmer ◽  
Frank Kauker ◽  
Ralph Timmermann ◽  
Tore Hattermann
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Open Ocean ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Atmospheric Forcing ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
A1b Scenario

Warm water of open ocean origin on the continental shelf of the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas causes the highest basal melt rates reported for Antarctic ice shelves with severe consequences for the ice shelf/ice sheet dynamics. Ice shelves fringing the broad continental shelf in the Weddell and Ross Seas melt at rates orders of magnitude smaller. However, simulations using coupled ice–ocean models forced with the atmospheric output of the HadCM3 SRES-A1B scenario run (CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 700 ppmv by the year 2100 and stays at that level for an additional 100 years) show that the circulation in the southern Weddell Sea changes during the twenty-first century. Derivatives of Circumpolar Deep Water are directed southward underneath the Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf, warming the cavity and dramatically increasing basal melting. To find out whether the open ocean will always continue to power the melting, the authors extend their simulations, applying twentieth-century atmospheric forcing, both alone and together with prescribed basal mass flux at the end of (or during) the SRES-A1B scenario run. The results identify a tipping point in the southern Weddell Sea: once warm water flushes the ice shelf cavity a positive meltwater feedback enhances the shelf circulation and the onshore transport of open ocean heat. The process is irreversible with a recurrence to twentieth-century atmospheric forcing and can only be halted through prescribing a return to twentieth-century basal melt rates. This finding might have strong implications for the stability of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Recent glacial advance in the western Weddell Sea Sector driven by anomalous sea ice circulation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frazer Christie ◽  
Toby Benham ◽  
Julian Dowdeswell
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Total Contribution ◽  
Antarctic Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
The Antarctic

<p>The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. There, the recent destabilization of the Larsen A and B ice shelves has been directly attributed to this warming, in concert with anomalous changes in ocean circulation. Having rapidly accelerated and retreated following the demise of Larsen A and B, the inland glaciers once feeding these ice shelves now form a significant proportion of Antarctica’s total contribution to global sea-level rise, and have become an exemplar for the fate of the wider Antarctic Ice Sheet under a changing climate. Together with other indicators of glaciological instability observable from satellites, abrupt pre-collapse changes in ice shelf terminus position are believed to have presaged the imminent disintegration of Larsen A and B, which necessitates the need for routine, close observation of this sector in order to accurately forecast the future stability of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Sheet. To date, however, detailed records of ice terminus position along this region of Antarctica only span the observational period c.1950 to 2008, despite several significant changes to the coastline over the last decade, including the calving of giant iceberg A-68a from Larsen C Ice Shelf in 2017.</p><p>Here, we present high-resolution, annual records of ice terminus change along the entire western Weddell Sea Sector, extending southwards from the former Larsen A Ice Shelf on the eastern Antarctic Peninsula to the periphery of Filchner Ice Shelf. Terminus positions were recovered primarily from Sentinel-1a/b, TerraSAR-X and ALOS-PALSAR SAR imagery acquired over the period 2009-2019, and were supplemented with Sentinel-2a/b, Landsat 7 ETM+ and Landsat 8 OLI optical imagery across regions of complex terrain.</p><p>Confounding Antarctic Ice Sheet-wide trends of increased glacial recession and mass loss over the long-term satellite era, we detect glaciological advance along 83% of the ice shelves fringing the eastern Antarctic Peninsula between 2009 and 2019. With the exception of SCAR Inlet, where the advance of its terminus position is attributable to long-lasting ice dynamical processes following the disintegration of Larsen B, this phenomenon lies in close agreement with recent observations of unchanged or arrested rates of ice flow and thinning along the coastline. Global climate reanalysis and satellite passive-microwave records reveal that this spatially homogenous advance can be attributed to an enhanced buttressing effect imparted on the eastern Antarctic Peninsula’s ice shelves, governed primarily by regional-scale increases in the delivery and concentration of sea ice proximal to the coastline.</p>

Bathymetry and acoustic facies beneath the former Larsen-A and Prince Gustav ice shelves, north-west Weddell Sea

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol J. Pudsey ◽  
Jeffrey Evans ◽  
Eugene W. Domack ◽  
Peter Morris ◽  
Rodolfo A. Del Valle
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Shelf Edge ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
North West ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
The Past ◽  
Acoustic Facies ◽  
Marine Mud

We present preliminary results of the first detailied surveys of the former Larsen-A Ice Shelf, Larsen Inlet and southern Prince Gustav Channel, where disintegration of small ice shelves in the past ten years has exposed the seafloor. Glacial troughs in the Larsen-A area, Larsen Inlet and Prince Gustav Channel reach 900–1100 m depth and have hummocky floors. Farther south-east, the continental shelf is shallower (400–500 m) and its surface is fluted to smooth, with the density of iceberg furrowing increasing towards the shelf edge. Acoustic profiles show a drape of transparent sediment 4–8 m thick in Prince Gustav Channel, thinning southwards. In cores, this drape corresponds to diatom-bearing marine and glacial-marine mud. In the Larsen-A area and Larsen Inlet, acoustically opaque sediment includes proximal ice shelf glaciomarine gravelly and sandy muds, and firm to stiff diamicts probably deposited subglacilly. These are overlain by thin (up to 1.3 m) glaciomarine muds, locally with distinctive diatom ooze laminae.

scholarly journals Explicit and parametrised representation of under ice shelf seas in a z<sup>*</sup> coordinate ocean model

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Mathiot ◽  
Adrian Jenkins ◽  
Christopher Harris ◽  
Gurvan Madec
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Depth Range ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Antarctic Continental Shelf ◽  
Shelf Seas ◽  
Ocean Properties ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. Ice shelf/ocean interactions are a major source of fresh water on the Antarctic continental shelf and have a strong impact on ocean properties, ocean circulation and sea ice. However, climate models based on the ocean/sea ice model NEMO currently do not include these interactions in any detail. The capability of explicitly simulating the circulation beneath ice shelves is introduced in the non-linear free surface model NEMO. Its implementation into the NEMO framework and its assessment in an idealised and realistic circum-Antarctic configuration is described in this study. Compared with the current prescription of ice shelf melting (i.e. at the surface) inclusion of open sub-ice-shelf leads to a decrease sea ice thickness along the coast, a weakening of the ocean stratification on the shelf, a decrease in salinity of HSSW on the Ross and Weddell Sea shelves and an increase in the strength of the gyres that circulate within the over-deepened basins on the West Antarctic continental shelf. Mimicking the under ice shelf seas overturning circulation by introducing the meltwater over the depth range of the ice shelf base, rather than at the surface is also tested. It yields similar improvements in the simulated ocean properties and circulation over the Antarctic continental shelf than the explicit ice shelf cavity representation. With the ice shelf cavities opened, the widely-used “3 equations” ice shelf melting formulation enables an interactive computation of melting that has been assessed. Comparison with observational estimates of ice shelf melting indicates realistic results for most ice shelves. However, melting rates for Amery, Getz and George VI ice shelves are considerably overestimated.

scholarly journals Oceanic Environment of George VI Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula

1988 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 161-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. H. Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Antarctic Peninsula ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Freezing Point ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Water Characteristics ◽  
The Antarctic

A collation of available data shows that sea-water with a temperature 3°C above the in-situ freezing point lies beneath George VI Ice Shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula, and is widespread on the Amundsen-Bellingshausen continental shelf. The presence of warm water is a factor in the recent and continuing disintegration of ice shelves in the region, yet the meteorology and oceanography of the sector are little known. We discuss a plausible link between the present climatic conditions, sea-water characteristics and the warm-water intrusion on to the continental shelf, thereby illustrating an indirect climatic influence on the mass balance of ice shelves.

scholarly journals Déjà Vu? Ocean Warmth Melted Ancient West Antarctic Ice Shelf

Eos ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Derouin
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
West Antarctic ◽  
Deja Vu ◽  
Seafloor Sediments ◽  
Déjà Vu

Clues in seafloor sediments reveal that relatively warm water beneath western Antarctic ice shelves, a major factor in today's massive ice sheet retreat, also fueled some past ice loss.

Lessons learnt from the former bed of Thwaites Glacier: a new multibeam-bathymetric dataset

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Hogan ◽  
Robert Larter ◽  
Alastair Graham ◽  
Robert Arthern ◽  
James Kirkham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Offshore Area ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Oceanic Heat Flux ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
Bed Roughness ◽  
High Resolution Bathymetry

&lt;p&gt;The coastal bathymetry of Thwaites Glacier (TG) is poorly known yet nearshore sea-floor highs have the potential to act as pinning points for floating ice shelves, or to block warm water incursions to the grounding line. In contrast, deeper areas control warm water routing. Here, we present more than 2000 km&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; of new multibeam echo-sounder data (MBES) acquired offshore TG during the first cruise of the &lt;em&gt;International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;ITGC&lt;/em&gt;) project on the RV/IB &lt;em&gt;Nathaniel B. Palmer&lt;/em&gt; (NBP19-02) in February-March 2019. Beyond TG, the bathymetry is dominated by a &gt;1200 m deep, structurally-controlled trough and discontinuous ridge, on which the Eastern Ice Shelf is pinned. The geometry and composition of the ridge varies spatially with some sea-floor highs having distinctive flat-topped morphologies produced as their tops were planed-off by erosion at the base of the seaward-moving Thwaites Ice Shelf. In addition, submarine landform evidence indicates at least some unconsolidated sediment cover on the highs, as well as in the troughs that separate them. Knowing that this offshore area of ridges and troughs is a former bed for TG, we also used a novel spectral approach and existing ice-flow theory to investigate bed roughness and basal drag over the newly-revealed offshore topography. We show that the sea-floor bathymetry is a good analogue for extant bed areas of TG and that ice-sheet retreat over the sea-floor troughs and ridges would have been affected by high basal drag similar to that acting in the grounding zone today.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Comparisons of the new MBES data with existing regional compilations show that high-frequency (finer than 5 km) bathymetric variability beyond Antarctic ice shelves can only be resolved by observations such as MBES and that without these data calculations of the oceanic heat flux may be significantly underestimated. This work supports the findings of recent numerical ice-sheet and ocean modelling studies that recognise the need for accurate and high-resolution bathymetry to determine warm water routing to the grounding zone and, ultimately, for predicting glacier retreat behaviour.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Tidal Modulation of Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Richter ◽  
David E. Gwyther ◽  
Matt A. King ◽  
Ben K. Galton-Fenzi
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Friction Velocity ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Singular Spectrum Analysis ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Basal Melting ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Tides influence basal melting of individual Antarctic ice shelves, but their net impact on Antarctic-wide ice-ocean interaction has yet to be constrained. Here we quantify the impact of tides on ice shelf melting and the continental shelf seas by means of a 4 km resolution circum-Antarctic ocean model. Activating tides in the model increases the total basal mass loss by 57 Gt/yr (4 %), while decreasing continental shelf temperatures by 0.04 &amp;#176;C, indicating a slightly more efficient conversion of ocean heat into ice shelf melting. Regional variations can be larger, with melt rate modulations exceeding 500 % and temperatures changing by more than 0.5 &amp;#176;C, highlighting the importance of capturing tides for robust modelling of glacier systems and coastal oceans. Tide-induced changes around the Antarctic Peninsula have a dipolar distribution with decreased ocean temperatures and reduced melting towards the Bellingshausen Sea and warming along the continental shelf break on the Weddell Sea side. This warming extends under the Ronne Ice Shelf, which also features one of the highest increases in area-averaged basal melting (128 %) when tides are included. Further, by means of a singular spectrum analysis, we explore the processes that cause variations in melting and its drivers in the boundary layer over periods of up to one month. At most places friction velocity varies at tidal timescales (one day or faster), while thermal driving changes at slower rates (longer than one day). In some key regions under the large cold-water ice shelves, however, thermal driving varies faster than friction velocity and this can not be explained by tidal modulations in boundary layer exchange rates alone. Our results suggest that large scale ocean models aiming to predict accurate ice shelf melt rates will need to explicitly resolve tides.&lt;/p&gt;

scholarly journals Simulation of the Greenland Ice Sheet over two glacial–interglacial cycles: investigating a sub-ice- shelf melt parameterization and relative sea level forcing in an ice-sheet–ice-shelf model

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 619-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah L. Bradley ◽  
Thomas J. Reerink ◽  
Roderik S. W. van de Wal ◽  
Michiel M. Helsen
Keyword(s):  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Temporal Behaviour ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Continental Shelf Break

Abstract. Observational evidence, including offshore moraines and sediment cores, confirm that at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) expanded to a significantly larger spatial extent than seen at present, grounding into Baffin Bay and out onto the continental shelf break. Given this larger spatial extent and its close proximity to the neighbouring Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) and Innuitian Ice Sheet (IIS), it is likely these ice sheets will have had a strong non-local influence on the spatial and temporal behaviour of the GrIS. Most previous paleo ice-sheet modelling simulations recreated an ice sheet that either did not extend out onto the continental shelf or utilized a simplified marine ice parameterization which did not fully include the effect of ice shelves or neglected the sensitivity of the GrIS to this non-local bedrock signal from the surrounding ice sheets. In this paper, we investigated the evolution of the GrIS over the two most recent glacial–interglacial cycles (240 ka BP to the present day) using the ice-sheet–ice-shelf model IMAU-ICE. We investigated the solid earth influence of the LIS and IIS via an offline relative sea level (RSL) forcing generated by a glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) model. The RSL forcing governed the spatial and temporal pattern of sub-ice-shelf melting via changes in the water depth below the ice shelves. In the ensemble of simulations, at the glacial maximums, the GrIS coalesced with the IIS to the north and expanded to the continental shelf break to the southwest but remained too restricted to the northeast. In terms of the global mean sea level contribution, at the Last Interglacial (LIG) and LGM the ice sheet added 1.46 and −2.59 m, respectively. This LGM contribution by the GrIS is considerably higher (∼ 1.26 m) than most previous studies whereas the contribution to the LIG highstand is lower (∼ 0.7 m). The spatial and temporal behaviour of the northern margin was highly variable in all simulations, controlled by the sub-ice-shelf melting which was dictated by the RSL forcing and the glacial history of the IIS and LIS. In contrast, the southwestern part of the ice sheet was insensitive to these forcings, with a uniform response in all simulations controlled by the surface air temperature, derived from ice cores.

scholarly journals Explicit representation and parametrised impacts of under ice shelf seas in the <i>z</i><sup>∗</sup> coordinate ocean model NEMO 3.6

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2849-2874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Mathiot ◽  
Adrian Jenkins ◽  
Christopher Harris ◽  
Gurvan Madec
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Depth Range ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Antarctic Continental Shelf ◽  
Ocean Properties ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. Ice-shelf–ocean interactions are a major source of freshwater on the Antarctic continental shelf and have a strong impact on ocean properties, ocean circulation and sea ice. However, climate models based on the ocean–sea ice model NEMO (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean) currently do not include these interactions in any detail. The capability of explicitly simulating the circulation beneath ice shelves is introduced in the non-linear free surface model NEMO. Its implementation into the NEMO framework and its assessment in an idealised and realistic circum-Antarctic configuration is described in this study. Compared with the current prescription of ice shelf melting (i.e. at the surface), inclusion of open sub-ice-shelf cavities leads to a decrease in sea ice thickness along the coast, a weakening of the ocean stratification on the shelf, a decrease in salinity of high-salinity shelf water on the Ross and Weddell sea shelves and an increase in the strength of the gyres that circulate within the over-deepened basins on the West Antarctic continental shelf. Mimicking the overturning circulation under the ice shelves by introducing a prescribed meltwater flux over the depth range of the ice shelf base, rather than at the surface, is also assessed. It yields similar improvements in the simulated ocean properties and circulation over the Antarctic continental shelf to those from the explicit ice shelf cavity representation. With the ice shelf cavities opened, the widely used three equation ice shelf melting formulation, which enables an interactive computation of melting, is tested. Comparison with observational estimates of ice shelf melting indicates realistic results for most ice shelves. However, melting rates for the Amery, Getz and George VI ice shelves are considerably overestimated.

scholarly journals On the freshening of the northwestern Weddell Sea continental shelf

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 2013-2042 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. Hellmer ◽  
O. Huhn ◽  
D. Gomis ◽  
R. Timmermann
Keyword(s):  
Sea Ice ◽  
Continental Shelf ◽  
Weddell Sea ◽  
Central Basin ◽  
Ice Shelf ◽  
Thermal Front ◽  
Ice Shelves ◽  
Deep Waters ◽  
Sea Ice Edge ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract. We analysed hydrographic data from the northwestern Weddell Sea continental shelf of three austral winters (1989, 1997 and 2006) and two summers following the last winter cruise. During summer a thermal front exists at ~64° S separating cold southern waters from warm northern waters that have similar characteristics as the deep waters of the central basin of the Bransfield Strait. In winter, the whole continental shelf exhibits southern characteristics with high Neon (Ne) concentrations, indicating a significant input of glacial melt water. The comparison of the winter data at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, spanning a period of 17 years, shows a salinity decrease of 0.09 for the whole water column. We interpret this freshening as a reduction in salt input to the water masses being advected northward on the western Weddell Sea continental shelf. Possible causes for the reduced winter salinification are a southward retreat of the summer sea ice edge together with more precipitation in this sector. However, the latter might have happened in conjunction with an increase in ice shelf mass loss, counteracting an enhanced salt input due to sea ice formation in coastal areas formerly occupied by Larsen A and B ice shelves.

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