of heat is the CDW, the core of which is isolated from the atmosphere by a layer of cold water hundreds of metres thick. The near coastal winds that drive ice production on both warm and cold shelves are dictated largely by the ice sheet geometry, so should remain relatively robust features in a war...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.561.6669 http://staff.acecrc.org.au/~johunter/ice_climate_2008_08_no_11_pp_4_6.pdf |
| Summary: | of heat is the CDW, the core of which is isolated from the atmosphere by a layer of cold water hundreds of metres thick. The near coastal winds that drive ice production on both warm and cold shelves are dictated largely by the ice sheet geometry, so should remain relatively robust features in a warming climate. However, changes in the mean westerly airflow around Antarctica could influence the water masses coming onto the continental shelf. Stronger westerly winds over the ACC could conceivably raise CDW higher in the water column (Hall and Visbeck, 2002) allowing it more widespread access to the shelves. Although this is an attractive hypothesis, more vigorous upwelling of CDW could also promote more rapid oceanic heat loss to the atmosphere and overall a lower heat flux onto the shelves. The links between the westerly wind regime and the shelf waters of the Amundsen Sea are thus only specula-tive at present, but they are high priorities for research as they could hold the key to the attribution of the causes of change and improved prediction of the future mass bal-ance of the ice sheet. |
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