On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves
Antarctic glacial meltwater is thought to play an important role in determining large-scale Southern Ocean climate trends, yet recent modeling efforts have proceeded without a good understanding of how its vertical distribution in the water column is set. To rectify this, here we conduct new large-e...
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American Meteorological Society
2021
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:530245 2023-05-15T13:41:45+02:00 On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves Arnscheidt, C.W. Marshall, J. Dutrieux, P. Rye, C.D. Ramadhan, A. 2021-07-01 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/1/%5B15200485%20-%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Oceanography%5D%20On%20the%20Settling%20Depth%20of%20Meltwater%20Escaping%20from%20beneath%20Antarctic%20Ice%20Shelves.pdf https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/phoc/aop/JPO-D-20-0286.1/JPO-D-20-0286.1.xml en eng American Meteorological Society https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/1/%5B15200485%20-%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Oceanography%5D%20On%20the%20Settling%20Depth%20of%20Meltwater%20Escaping%20from%20beneath%20Antarctic%20Ice%20Shelves.pdf Arnscheidt, C.W.; Marshall, J.; Dutrieux, P. orcid:0000-0002-8066-934X Rye, C.D.; Ramadhan, A. 2021 On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 51 (7). 2257-2270. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1 <https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2021 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1 2023-02-04T19:52:05Z Antarctic glacial meltwater is thought to play an important role in determining large-scale Southern Ocean climate trends, yet recent modeling efforts have proceeded without a good understanding of how its vertical distribution in the water column is set. To rectify this, here we conduct new large-eddy simulations of the ascent of a buoyant meltwater plume after its escape from beneath an Antarctic ice shelf. We find that the meltwater’s settling depth is primarily a function of the buoyancy forcing per unit width of the source and the ambient stratification, consistent with the classical theory of turbulent buoyant plumes and in contrast to previous work that suggested an important role for centrifugal instability. Our results further highlight the significant role played by localized variability in stratification; this helps explain observed interannual variability in the vertical meltwater distribution near Pine Island Glacier. Because of the vast heterogeneity in mass loss rates and ambient conditions at different Antarctic ice shelves, a dynamic parameterization of meltwater settling depth may be crucial for accurately simulating high-latitude climate in a warming world; we discuss how this may be developed following this work, and where the remaining challenges lie. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Pine Island Glacier Southern Ocean Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Southern Ocean Pine Island Glacier ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) Journal of Physical Oceanography |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
Antarctic glacial meltwater is thought to play an important role in determining large-scale Southern Ocean climate trends, yet recent modeling efforts have proceeded without a good understanding of how its vertical distribution in the water column is set. To rectify this, here we conduct new large-eddy simulations of the ascent of a buoyant meltwater plume after its escape from beneath an Antarctic ice shelf. We find that the meltwater’s settling depth is primarily a function of the buoyancy forcing per unit width of the source and the ambient stratification, consistent with the classical theory of turbulent buoyant plumes and in contrast to previous work that suggested an important role for centrifugal instability. Our results further highlight the significant role played by localized variability in stratification; this helps explain observed interannual variability in the vertical meltwater distribution near Pine Island Glacier. Because of the vast heterogeneity in mass loss rates and ambient conditions at different Antarctic ice shelves, a dynamic parameterization of meltwater settling depth may be crucial for accurately simulating high-latitude climate in a warming world; we discuss how this may be developed following this work, and where the remaining challenges lie. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arnscheidt, C.W. Marshall, J. Dutrieux, P. Rye, C.D. Ramadhan, A. |
spellingShingle |
Arnscheidt, C.W. Marshall, J. Dutrieux, P. Rye, C.D. Ramadhan, A. On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
author_facet |
Arnscheidt, C.W. Marshall, J. Dutrieux, P. Rye, C.D. Ramadhan, A. |
author_sort |
Arnscheidt, C.W. |
title |
On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
title_short |
On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
title_full |
On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
title_fullStr |
On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
title_full_unstemmed |
On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves |
title_sort |
on the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath antarctic ice shelves |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/1/%5B15200485%20-%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Oceanography%5D%20On%20the%20Settling%20Depth%20of%20Meltwater%20Escaping%20from%20beneath%20Antarctic%20Ice%20Shelves.pdf https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/phoc/aop/JPO-D-20-0286.1/JPO-D-20-0286.1.xml |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-101.000,-101.000,-75.000,-75.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Pine Island Glacier |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Pine Island Glacier |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Pine Island Glacier Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Pine Island Glacier Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/530245/1/%5B15200485%20-%20Journal%20of%20Physical%20Oceanography%5D%20On%20the%20Settling%20Depth%20of%20Meltwater%20Escaping%20from%20beneath%20Antarctic%20Ice%20Shelves.pdf Arnscheidt, C.W.; Marshall, J.; Dutrieux, P. orcid:0000-0002-8066-934X Rye, C.D.; Ramadhan, A. 2021 On the settling depth of meltwater escaping from beneath Antarctic ice shelves. Journal of Physical Oceanography, 51 (7). 2257-2270. https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1 <https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JPO-D-20-0286.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Physical Oceanography |
_version_ |
1766157412028383232 |