Simulated impact of Southern Hemisphere westerlies on Antarctic Shelf Bottom Water temperature

• Main Authors: Xia, Lin, Zhaomin, Wang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2018
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Weddell Sea; Weddell; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Shelf; Polar Science; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2667/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2667/1/A1803007.pdf

The Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerly winds have intensified and shifted poleward since the 1970s and this trend is projected to sustain under future anthropogenic forcing. The influences of intensified SH westerlies on the Antarctic coastal waters are still not clear. The variability of Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottom Water (ASBW) temperature is crucial for ice shelf basal melting and hence ice shelf mass balance in Antarctica. In order to understand the impacts of SH westerlies on the variability of ASBW temperature, atmospheric forcing in 1992 with weak westerlies and in 1998 with strong westerlies are used to drive a high-resolution ocean-sea ice general circulation model, MITgcm-ECCO2. Our simulated results show that under the atmospheric forcing in 1998, the ASBW becomes warmer in most regions around Antarctica except the coastal region between 60°–150°W, than for the case under atmospheric forcing in 1992. The warming of ASBW around Antarctica is due to the intense shoaling and warming of CDW induced by enhanced Ekman pumping as well as strengthened subpolar gyres. The strengthened subpolar gyres favor the transportation of warm water to the coast of Antarctica. The cooling of ASBW along the coast of the western Antarctic Peninsula is caused by stronger coastal currents, which bring colder water downstream from the northwest flank of the Weddell Sea.