Ross Gyre variability modulates oceanic heat supply toward the West Antarctic continental shelf

• Published in: Communications Earth & Environment
• Main Authors: Prend, Channing J., MacGilchrist, Graeme A., Manucharyan, Georgy E., Pang, Rachel Q., Moorman, Ruth, Thompson, Andrew F., Griffies, Stephen M., Mazloff, Matthew R., Talley, Lynne D., Gille, Sarah T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group 2024
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; General Environmental Science; Amundsen Sea; Antarctic; Pacific; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01207-y

West Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss is a major source of uncertainty in sea level projections. The primary driver of this melting is oceanic heat from Circumpolar Deep Water originating offshore in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Yet, in assessing melt variability, open ocean processes have received considerably less attention than those governing cross-shelf exchange. Here, we use Lagrangian particle release experiments in an ocean model to investigate the pathways by which Circumpolar Deep Water moves toward the continental shelf across the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean. We show that Ross Gyre expansion, linked to wind and sea ice variability, increases poleward heat transport along the gyre’s eastern limb and the relative fraction of transport toward the Amundsen Sea. Ross Gyre variability, therefore, influences oceanic heat supply toward the West Antarctic continental slope. Understanding remote controls on basal melt is necessary to predict the ice sheet response to anthropogenic forcing. © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visithttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. C.J.P., G.A.M., M.R.M., L.D.T., and S.T.G. were supported by NSF PLR-1425989 and OPP-1936222 (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling project). ...