The Role of Tides in Ocean‐Ice Shelf Interactions in the Southwestern Weddell Sea

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans
• Main Authors: Hausmann, Ute, Sallée, Jean-Baptiste, Jourdain, Nicolas, Mathiot, Pierre, Rousset, Clément, Madec, Gurvan, Deshayes, Julie, Hattermann, Tore
• Other Authors: Processus et interactions de fine échelle océanique (PROTEO), Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentations et Approches Numériques (LOCEAN), Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS Paris), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Institut Pierre-Simon-Laplace (IPSL (FR_636)), Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Paris (UP)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU), Océan et variabilité du climat (VARCLIM), Institut des Géosciences de l’Environnement (IGE), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), United Kingdom Met Office Exeter, Nucleus for European Modeling of the Ocean (NEMO R&D ), Mathematics and computing applied to oceanic and atmospheric flows (AIRSEA), Inria Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Laboratoire Jean Kuntzmann (LJK), Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (Inria)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP ), Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2020
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03017912; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03017912/document; https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03017912/file/2019JC015847.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JC015847

International audience To investigate the role of tides in Weddell Sea ocean‐ice shelf melt interactions, and resulting consequences for ocean properties and sea ice interactions, we develop a regional ocean‐sea ice model configuration, with time‐varying ocean boundary and atmospheric forcing, including the deep open ocean (at 2.5–4 km horizontal resolution), the southwestern continental shelf (≈2.5 km), and the adjacent cavities of eastern Weddell, Larsen, and Filchner‐Ronne ice shelves (FRIS, 1.5–2.5 km). Simulated circulation, water mass, and ice shelf melt properties compare overall well with available open ocean and cavity observational knowledge. Tides are shown to enhance the kinetic energy of the time‐varying flow in contact with the ice shelves, thereby increasing melt. This dynamically driven impact of tides on net melting is to almost 90% compensated by cooling through the meltwater that is produced but not quickly exported from regions of melting in the Weddell Sea cold‐cavity regime. The resulting systematic tide‐driven enhancement of both produced meltwater and its refreezing on ascending branches of, especially the FRIS, cavity circulation acts to increase net ice shelf melting (by 50% in respect to the state without tides, ≈50 Gt yr−1). In addition, tides also increase the melt‐induced FRIS cavity circulation, and the meltwater export by the FRIS outflow. Simulations suggest attendant changes on the open‐ocean southwestern continental shelf, characterized by overall freshening and small year‐round sea ice thickening, as well as in the deep southwestern Weddell Sea in the form of a marked freshening of newly formed bottom waters. Near-observed Weddell Sea gyre, continental-shelf & cavity water masses in interactive ocean/sea-ice/tide/ice-shelf melt simulations Tides amplify basal melt-refreeze pattern, raising net melt by 50%, associated with enhanced time-varying kinetic energy at the ice base Impacts of additional meltwater production on Weddell continental shelf sea ice and newly formed ...