scholarly journals Tropical forcing of Circumpolar Deep Water Inflow and outlet glacier thinning in the Amundsen Sea Embayment, West Antarctica

2012 ◽  
Vol 53 (60) ◽  
pp. 19-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.J. Steig ◽  
Q. Ding ◽  
D.S. Battisti ◽  
A. Jenkins

AbstractOutlet glaciers draining the Antarctic ice sheet into the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) have accelerated in recent decades, most likely as a result of increased melting of their ice-shelf termini by warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). An ocean model forced with climate reanalysis data shows that, beginning in the early 1990s, an increase in westerly wind stress near the continental shelf edge drove an increase in CDW inflow onto the shelf. The change in local wind stress occurred predominantly in fall and early winter, associated with anomalous high sea-level pressure (SLP) to the north of the ASE and an increase in sea surface temperature (SST) in the central tropical Pacific. The SLP change is associated with geopotential height anomalies in the middle and upper troposphere, characteristic of a stationary Rossby wave response to tropical SST forcing, rather than with changes in the zonally symmetric circulation. Tropical Pacific warming similar to that of the 1990s occurred in the 1940s, and thus is a candidate for initiating the current period of ASE glacier retreat.

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 933-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise C. Biddle ◽  
Karen J. Heywood ◽  
Jan Kaiser ◽  
Adrian Jenkins

AbstractPine Island Ice Shelf, in the Amundsen Sea, is losing mass because of warm ocean waters melting the ice from below. Tracing meltwater pathways from ice shelves is important for identifying the regions most affected by the increased input of this water type. Here, optimum multiparameter analysis is used to deduce glacial meltwater fractions from water mass characteristics (temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen concentrations), collected during a ship-based campaign in the eastern Amundsen Sea in February–March 2014. Using a one-dimensional ocean model, processes such as variability in the characteristics of the source water masses on shelf and biological productivity/respiration are shown to affect the calculated apparent meltwater fractions. These processes can result in a false meltwater signature, creating misleading apparent glacial meltwater pathways. An alternative glacial meltwater calculation is suggested, using a pseudo–Circumpolar Deep Water endpoint and using an artificial increase in uncertainty of the dissolved oxygen measurements. The pseudo–Circumpolar Deep Water characteristics are affected by the under ice shelf bathymetry. The glacial meltwater fractions reveal a pathway for 2014 meltwater leading to the west of Pine Island Ice Shelf, along the coastline.


Author(s):  
Xiaoyi Shen ◽  
Chang-Qing Ke ◽  
Bin Cheng ◽  
Wentao Xia ◽  
Mengmeng Li ◽  
...  

AbstractIn August 2018, a remarkable polynya was observed off the north coast of Greenland, a perennial ice zone where thick sea ice cover persists. In order to investigate the formation process of this polynya, satellite observations, a coupled ice-ocean model, ocean profiling data, and atmosphere reanalysis data were applied. We found that the thinnest sea ice cover in August since 1978 (mean value of 1.1 m, compared to the average value of 2.8 m during 1978–2017) and the modest southerly wind caused by a positive North Atlantic Oscillation (mean value of 0.82, compared to the climatological value of −0.02) were responsible for the formation and maintenance of this polynya. The opening mechanism of this polynya differs from the one formed in February 2018 in the same area caused by persistent anomalously high wind. Sea ice drift patterns have become more responsive to the atmospheric forcing due to thinning of sea ice cover in this region.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (8) ◽  
pp. 1288-1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Shogo Urakawa ◽  
Hiroyasu Hasumi

Abstract Cabbeling effect on the water mass transformation in the Southern Ocean is investigated with the use of an eddy-resolving Southern Ocean model. A significant amount of water is densified by cabbeling: water mass transformation rates are about 4 Sv (1 Sv ≡ 106 m3 s−1) for transformation from surface/thermocline water to Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), about 7 Sv for transformation from SAMW to Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW), and about 5 Sv for transformation from AAIW to Upper Circumpolar Deep Water. These diapycnal volume transports occur around the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), where mesoscale eddies are active. The water mass transformation by cabbeling in this study is also characterized by a large amount of densification of Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (LCDW) into Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) (about 9 Sv). Large diapycnal velocity is found not only along the ACC but also along the coast of Antarctica at the boundary between LCDW and AABW. It is found that about 3 Sv of LCDW is densified into AABW by cabbeling on the continental slopes of Antarctica in this study. This densification is not small compared with observational and numerical estimates on the AABW formation rate, which ranges from 10 to 20 Sv.


2013 ◽  
Vol 118 (12) ◽  
pp. 6603-6620 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Assmann ◽  
A. Jenkins ◽  
D. R. Shoosmith ◽  
D. P. Walker ◽  
S. S. Jacobs ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 4982-4990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen K. W. Mallett ◽  
Lars Boehme ◽  
Mike Fedak ◽  
Karen J. Heywood ◽  
David P. Stevens ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Schmidt ◽  
Hadi Bordbar ◽  
Fernanda Nascimento ◽  
Claudia Frauen

<p>High resolution regional ocean circulation models are needed to investigate regional ecosystem dynamics. However, these models may suffer from biases due to shortcomings in reanalysis datasets like NCEP or ERA-Interin, that have traditionally been used as atmospheric forcing. More realistic results can be achieved by replacing the reanalysed wind with scatterometer based winds. However, inconsistencies between different scatterometers like ASCAT and QuikSCAT introduce new uncertainty, which prevents a discussion of long-term trends in these models. The ERA-5 reanalysis offers a new consistent data set to force highly resolving regional ocean models. Based on such a simulation we analyse trends and anomalies in poleward currents in the Eastern Boundary Current off Southern Africa and Northern Benguela upwelling intensity due to changing wind stress and wind stress curl. Model results are validated with remote sensing as well as shipborne and mooring data. Further, variability of oxygen conditions in the Northern Benguela and the Angola Gyre oxygen minimum zone is discussed. </p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 1041-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Chiodi ◽  
D. E. Harrison

Abstract The fundamental importance of near-equatorial zonal wind stress in the evolution of the tropical Pacific Ocean’s seasonal cycle and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events is well known. It has been two decades since the TAO/TRITON buoy array was deployed, in part to provide accurate surface wind observations across the Pacific waveguide. It is timely to revisit the impact of TAO/TRITON winds on our ability to simulate and thereby understand the evolution of sea surface temperature (SST) in this region. This work shows that forced ocean model simulations of SST anomalies (SSTAs) during the periods with a reasonably high buoy data return rate can reproduce the major elements of SSTA variability during ENSO events using a wind stress field computed from TAO/TRITON observations only. This demonstrates that the buoy array usefully fulfills its waveguide-wind-measurement purpose. Comparison of several reanalysis wind fields commonly used in recent ENSO studies with the TAO/TRITON observations reveals substantial biases in the reanalyses that cause substantial errors in the variability and trends of the reanalysis-forced SST simulations. In particular, the negative trend in ERA-Interim is much larger and the NCEP–NCAR Reanalysis-1 and NCEP–DOE Reanalysis-2 variability much less than seen in the TAO/TRITON wind observations. There are also mean biases. Thus, even with the TAO/TRITON observations available for assimilation into these wind products, there remain oceanically important differences. The reanalyses would be much more useful for ENSO and tropical Pacific climate change study if they would more effectively assimilate the TAO/TRITON observations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Youngji Joh ◽  
Emanuele Di Lorenzo ◽  
Leo Siqueira ◽  
Benjamin P. Kirtman

AbstractQuasi-decadal climate of the Kuroshio Extension (KE) is pivotal to understanding the North Pacific coupled ocean–atmosphere dynamics and their predictability. Recent observational studies suggest that extratropical-tropical coupling between the KE and the central tropical Pacific El Niño Southern Oscillation (CP-ENSO) leads to the observed preferred decadal time-scale of Pacific climate variability. By combining reanalysis data with numerical simulations from a high-resolution climate model and a linear inverse model (LIM), we confirm that KE and CP-ENSO dynamics are linked through extratropical-tropical teleconnections. Specifically, the atmospheric response to the KE excites Meridional Modes that energize the CP-ENSO (extratropicstropics), and in turn, CP-ENSO teleconnections energize the extratropical atmospheric forcing of the KE (tropicsextratropics). However, both observations and the model show that the KE/CP-ENSO coupling is non-stationary and has intensified in recent decades after the mid-1980. Given the short length of the observational and climate model record, it is difficult to attribute this shift to anthropogenic forcing. However, using a large-ensemble of the LIM we show that the intensification in the KE/CP-ENSO coupling after the mid-1980 is significant and linked to changes in the KE atmospheric downstream response, which exhibit a stronger imprint on the subtropical winds that excite the Pacific Meridional modes and CP-ENSO.


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