| Summary: | Progress Code: onGoing Statement: See Readme files in the download files of the child metadata records for details of data quality and equipment down-time. Note - depths provided in spatial coverage are referenced back to sea level. The minimum depth asl refers to the height of the ice surface. --- Public Summary from Project --- Most of the snow falling on inland Antarctica drains via large ice streams and floating ice shelves to the sea where it lost by iceberg calving or as melt beneath the shelves. Ocean interaction beneath the shelves is complicated, and regions of basal refreezing as well as melt occur. These processes are important not only because they are a major component of the Antarctic mass budget, but because they also modify the characteristics of the ocean, influencing the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water which plays a major role in the global ocean circulation. The processes are sensitive to climate change, and shifts in ocean temperature or circulation near Antarctica could lead to the disappearance of all Antarctic ice shelves. The Amery Ice Shelf is the major embayed shelf in East Antarctica, and the subject of considerable previous ANARE investigation. Ocean interaction processes occurring beneath the shelf are only poorly understood, and this project will directly measure water characteristics and circulation in the cavity underneath the ice shelf, and the rates of melt and freezing on the bottom of the shelf. These measurements will be made through a number of access holes melted through the shelf. The project is closely linked with other projects investigating the circulation and interactions in the open ocean to the north of the shelf, and studies of the ice shelf flow and mass budget. There will be child records for each of the following data sets: AM01 and AM01 b boreholes * CTD profiles through water column * CTD annual records at selected depths * Ocean current profiles through water column * Temperature measurements through ice shelf and across ice-water interface * Small ice ...
|
|---|