Weddell Sea icebergs: 5 years of observations

• Main Authors: Hellmer, Hartmut, Schodlok, Michael
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Neumayer; Neumayer Station; Ronne Ice Shelf; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Ice Shelf; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/13532/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.23911

Since 1999, 59 icebergs have been tagged with GPS buoys in the Weddell Sea to enable monitoring of their position. The icebergs chosen were of small to medium size, with a few icebergs larger than 10 km associated with the calving of icebergs A38 and A43 from the Ronne Ice Shelf. The majority of icebergs were tagged off Neumayer Station (8 E, 70S). The observed drifts of icebergs and sea-ice showed a remarkably coherent motion. The analysis of an iceberg - sea-ice buoy array in the western Weddell Sea and an iceberg array in the eastern Weddell Sea showed a coherent sea-ice iceberg drift in sea-ice concentrations above 86%. Differential kinematic parameters (DKP) during the course of coherent movement were low anddeviations from the mean course associated with the passage of low-pressure systems. Iceberg and thus freshwater export out of the Weddell Sea was found to be highly variable. In one year the majority of buoys deployed remained in the Weddell Sea, constituting about 40% of the NCEP P-E freshwater input, whereas in other years all of the tagged icebergs were exported.