Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography
Previous studies show accelerations of West Antarctic glaciers, implying that basal melt rates of these glaciers were previously small and increased in the middle of the 20th century. This enhanced melting is a likely source of the observed Ross Sea (RS) freshening, but its long-term impact on the S...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Copernicus Publications
2020
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/1/Nakayama_et_al_2020__TC.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.743ee887-63a0-4df3-9179-f6e0a75eab5b |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:58269 2024-03-24T08:56:52+00:00 Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography Nakayama, Yoshihiro Timmermann, Ralph Hellmer, Hartmut H 2020-07-13 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/1/Nakayama_et_al_2020__TC.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.743ee887-63a0-4df3-9179-f6e0a75eab5b unknown Copernicus Publications https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/1/Nakayama_et_al_2020__TC.pdf Nakayama, Y. , Timmermann, R. and Hellmer, H. H. orcid:0000-0002-9357-9853 (2020) Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography , The Cryosphere, 14 (7), pp. 2205-2216 . doi:10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020> , hdl:10013/epic.743ee887-63a0-4df3-9179-f6e0a75eab5b EPIC3The Cryosphere, Copernicus Publications, 14(7), pp. 2205-2216, ISSN: 1994-0416 Article isiRev 2020 ftawi https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 2024-02-27T09:55:26Z Previous studies show accelerations of West Antarctic glaciers, implying that basal melt rates of these glaciers were previously small and increased in the middle of the 20th century. This enhanced melting is a likely source of the observed Ross Sea (RS) freshening, but its long-term impact on the Southern Ocean hydrography has not been well investigated. Here, we conduct coupled sea ice-ice shelf-ocean simulations with different levels of ice shelf melting from West Antarctic glaciers. Freshening of RS shelf and bottom water is simulated with enhanced West Antarctic ice shelf melting, while no significant changes in shelf water properties are simulated when West Antarctic ice shelf melting is small. We further show that the freshening caused by glacial meltwater from ice shelves in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas can propagate further downstream along the East Antarctic coast into the Weddell Sea. The freshening signal propagates onto the RS continental shelf within a year of model simulation, while it takes roughly 5-10 and 10-15 years to propagate into the region off Cape Darnley and into the Weddell Sea, respectively. This advection of freshening modulates the shelf water properties and possibly impacts the production of Antarctic Bottom Water if the enhanced melting of West Antarctic ice shelves continues for a longer period. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Ross Sea Weddell Darnley ENVELOPE(69.717,69.717,-67.717,-67.717) Cape Darnley ENVELOPE(69.567,69.567,-67.738,-67.738) The Cryosphere 14 7 2205 2216 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
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ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
Previous studies show accelerations of West Antarctic glaciers, implying that basal melt rates of these glaciers were previously small and increased in the middle of the 20th century. This enhanced melting is a likely source of the observed Ross Sea (RS) freshening, but its long-term impact on the Southern Ocean hydrography has not been well investigated. Here, we conduct coupled sea ice-ice shelf-ocean simulations with different levels of ice shelf melting from West Antarctic glaciers. Freshening of RS shelf and bottom water is simulated with enhanced West Antarctic ice shelf melting, while no significant changes in shelf water properties are simulated when West Antarctic ice shelf melting is small. We further show that the freshening caused by glacial meltwater from ice shelves in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen seas can propagate further downstream along the East Antarctic coast into the Weddell Sea. The freshening signal propagates onto the RS continental shelf within a year of model simulation, while it takes roughly 5-10 and 10-15 years to propagate into the region off Cape Darnley and into the Weddell Sea, respectively. This advection of freshening modulates the shelf water properties and possibly impacts the production of Antarctic Bottom Water if the enhanced melting of West Antarctic ice shelves continues for a longer period. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nakayama, Yoshihiro Timmermann, Ralph Hellmer, Hartmut H |
spellingShingle |
Nakayama, Yoshihiro Timmermann, Ralph Hellmer, Hartmut H Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
author_facet |
Nakayama, Yoshihiro Timmermann, Ralph Hellmer, Hartmut H |
author_sort |
Nakayama, Yoshihiro |
title |
Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
title_short |
Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
title_full |
Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
title_fullStr |
Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography |
title_sort |
impact of west antarctic ice shelf melting on southern ocean hydrography |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/1/Nakayama_et_al_2020__TC.pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.743ee887-63a0-4df3-9179-f6e0a75eab5b |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(69.717,69.717,-67.717,-67.717) ENVELOPE(69.567,69.567,-67.738,-67.738) |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Ross Sea Weddell Darnley Cape Darnley |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Ross Sea Weddell Darnley Cape Darnley |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Ross Sea Sea ice Southern Ocean The Cryosphere Weddell Sea |
op_source |
EPIC3The Cryosphere, Copernicus Publications, 14(7), pp. 2205-2216, ISSN: 1994-0416 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58269/1/Nakayama_et_al_2020__TC.pdf Nakayama, Y. , Timmermann, R. and Hellmer, H. H. orcid:0000-0002-9357-9853 (2020) Impact of West Antarctic ice shelf melting on Southern Ocean hydrography , The Cryosphere, 14 (7), pp. 2205-2216 . doi:10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020> , hdl:10013/epic.743ee887-63a0-4df3-9179-f6e0a75eab5b |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-2205-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
2205 |
op_container_end_page |
2216 |
_version_ |
1794404859135393792 |