Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation
Coastal polynyas are areas in the ice-covered ocean from which the sea-ice cover has been mechanically removed, primarily by winds. They are areas of enhanced exchange processes between ocean and atmosphere. The increased heat flux allows for exceptionally high freezing rates, which lead to locally...
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Online Access: | https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/1/EGU2011-7680.pdf https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 |
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ftoceanrep:oai:oceanrep.geomar.de:26449 2023-05-15T14:11:24+02:00 Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation Haid, Verena Timmermann, Ralph Ebner, Lars Heinemann, Günther 2011 text https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/1/EGU2011-7680.pdf https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 en eng https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/1/EGU2011-7680.pdf Haid, V., Timmermann, R., Ebner, L. and Heinemann, G. (2011) Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation. [Other] In: EGU General Assembly 2011. , 03.04.-08.04.2011, Vienna, Austria . DOI 10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 <https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210>. doi:10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 cc_by_nc Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed 2011 ftoceanrep https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 2023-04-07T15:15:53Z Coastal polynyas are areas in the ice-covered ocean from which the sea-ice cover has been mechanically removed, primarily by winds. They are areas of enhanced exchange processes between ocean and atmosphere. The increased heat flux allows for exceptionally high freezing rates, which lead to locally increased brine-rejection. In the southwestern Weddell Sea, wide continental shelves and a weak exchange with the open ocean provide conditions that allow for substantial salinity enrichment, forming the cold and saline High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW), which is the densest water mass in the region. HSSW is one of the ingredients of Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW) and is thus essential for the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, which covers large parts of the World Ocean’s abyss. Thus, production rates of HSSW and WSBW are of crucial importance in the ocean’s global thermohaline circulation. To study the influence of coastal polynyas on ice production and water mass formation in the southwestern Weddell Sea, we performed simulations using the Finite Element Sea ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven. FESOM is a coupled system of a primitive-equation, hydrostatic ocean model and a dynamic-thermodynamic sea-ice model. Simulations were conducted on a global unstructured mesh, focussing on the southwestern Weddell Sea coastline with up to 3 km resolution. In vertical direction, the grid features 37 z-coordinate depth levels of which 6 are within the uppermost 100 m. The model runs were initialised in 1980 and forced with NCEP daily reanalysis data. In addition, a hindcast for the year 2008 was computed with GME 6-hourly data forcing. For the winter period 2008, the (hourly) output from the high-resolution regional atmosphere model COSMO of the University Trier was nested into the GME fields, covering the area of the western Weddell Sea. For data evaluation and analysis the period 1990-2009 is used. A comparison of model results to AMSR sea ice concentration shows good agreement in spatial ... Conference Object Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Weddell Sea OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) Antarctic Weddell Sea Weddell Polar Research 30 1 7210 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OceanRep (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre für Ocean Research Kiel) |
op_collection_id |
ftoceanrep |
language |
English |
description |
Coastal polynyas are areas in the ice-covered ocean from which the sea-ice cover has been mechanically removed, primarily by winds. They are areas of enhanced exchange processes between ocean and atmosphere. The increased heat flux allows for exceptionally high freezing rates, which lead to locally increased brine-rejection. In the southwestern Weddell Sea, wide continental shelves and a weak exchange with the open ocean provide conditions that allow for substantial salinity enrichment, forming the cold and saline High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW), which is the densest water mass in the region. HSSW is one of the ingredients of Weddell Sea Bottom Water (WSBW) and is thus essential for the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, which covers large parts of the World Ocean’s abyss. Thus, production rates of HSSW and WSBW are of crucial importance in the ocean’s global thermohaline circulation. To study the influence of coastal polynyas on ice production and water mass formation in the southwestern Weddell Sea, we performed simulations using the Finite Element Sea ice-Ocean Model (FESOM) of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Bremerhaven. FESOM is a coupled system of a primitive-equation, hydrostatic ocean model and a dynamic-thermodynamic sea-ice model. Simulations were conducted on a global unstructured mesh, focussing on the southwestern Weddell Sea coastline with up to 3 km resolution. In vertical direction, the grid features 37 z-coordinate depth levels of which 6 are within the uppermost 100 m. The model runs were initialised in 1980 and forced with NCEP daily reanalysis data. In addition, a hindcast for the year 2008 was computed with GME 6-hourly data forcing. For the winter period 2008, the (hourly) output from the high-resolution regional atmosphere model COSMO of the University Trier was nested into the GME fields, covering the area of the western Weddell Sea. For data evaluation and analysis the period 1990-2009 is used. A comparison of model results to AMSR sea ice concentration shows good agreement in spatial ... |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Haid, Verena Timmermann, Ralph Ebner, Lars Heinemann, Günther |
spellingShingle |
Haid, Verena Timmermann, Ralph Ebner, Lars Heinemann, Günther Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
author_facet |
Haid, Verena Timmermann, Ralph Ebner, Lars Heinemann, Günther |
author_sort |
Haid, Verena |
title |
Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
title_short |
Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
title_full |
Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
title_fullStr |
Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
title_sort |
coastal polynyas in the southwestern weddell sea: ice production and bottom water formation |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/ https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/1/EGU2011-7680.pdf https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 |
geographic |
Antarctic Weddell Sea Weddell |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Weddell Sea Weddell |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Sea ice Weddell Sea |
op_relation |
https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/26449/1/EGU2011-7680.pdf Haid, V., Timmermann, R., Ebner, L. and Heinemann, G. (2011) Coastal polynyas in the southwestern Weddell Sea: ice production and bottom water formation. [Other] In: EGU General Assembly 2011. , 03.04.-08.04.2011, Vienna, Austria . DOI 10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 <https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210>. doi:10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 |
op_rights |
cc_by_nc |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v30i0.7210 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
30 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
7210 |
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1766283540308164608 |