Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model
Open-ocean polynyas (OOPs) in the Southern Ocean are ice-free areas within the winter ice pack that are associated with deep convection, potentially contributing to the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water. To enhance the credibility of Earth system models (ESMs), their ability to simulate OOPs reali...
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1483544 2023-07-30T03:59:10+02:00 Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model Kurtakoti, Prajvala Veneziani, Milena Stössel, Achim Weijer, Wilbert 2021-07-28 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1483544 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1483544 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1483544 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1483544 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2021 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 2023-07-11T09:30:11Z Open-ocean polynyas (OOPs) in the Southern Ocean are ice-free areas within the winter ice pack that are associated with deep convection, potentially contributing to the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water. To enhance the credibility of Earth system models (ESMs), their ability to simulate OOPs realistically is thus crucial. Here we investigate OOPs that emerge intermittently in a high-resolution (HR) preindustrial simulation with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, version 0.1 (E3SMv0), an offspring of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). While low-resolution (LR) simulations with E3SMv0 show no signs of OOP formation, the preindustrial E3SMv0-HR simulation produces both large Weddell Sea polynyas (WSPs) as well as small Maud Rise polynyas (MRPs). The latter are associated with a prominent seamount in the eastern Weddell Sea, and their preconditioning and formation is the focus of this study. The steep flanks of the rugged topography in this region are in E3SMv0-HR sufficiently well resolved for the impinging flow to produce pronounced Taylor caps that precondition the region for convection. Aided by an accumulation of heat in the Weddell Deep Water layer, the ultimate trigger of convection that leads to MRPs is the advection of anomalously high upper-ocean-layer salinity. The crucial difference to WSP-producing LR ESM simulations is that in E3SMv0-HR, WSPs are realistically preceded by MRPs, which in turn are a result of the flow around bathymetry being represented with unprecedented detail. Other/Unknown Material Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Southern Ocean Weddell Sea SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Weddell Maud Rise ENVELOPE(3.000,3.000,-66.000,-66.000) Journal of Climate 31 23 9659 9678 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
op_collection_id |
ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
spellingShingle |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Kurtakoti, Prajvala Veneziani, Milena Stössel, Achim Weijer, Wilbert Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
topic_facet |
58 GEOSCIENCES 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
Open-ocean polynyas (OOPs) in the Southern Ocean are ice-free areas within the winter ice pack that are associated with deep convection, potentially contributing to the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water. To enhance the credibility of Earth system models (ESMs), their ability to simulate OOPs realistically is thus crucial. Here we investigate OOPs that emerge intermittently in a high-resolution (HR) preindustrial simulation with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, version 0.1 (E3SMv0), an offspring of the Community Earth System Model (CESM). While low-resolution (LR) simulations with E3SMv0 show no signs of OOP formation, the preindustrial E3SMv0-HR simulation produces both large Weddell Sea polynyas (WSPs) as well as small Maud Rise polynyas (MRPs). The latter are associated with a prominent seamount in the eastern Weddell Sea, and their preconditioning and formation is the focus of this study. The steep flanks of the rugged topography in this region are in E3SMv0-HR sufficiently well resolved for the impinging flow to produce pronounced Taylor caps that precondition the region for convection. Aided by an accumulation of heat in the Weddell Deep Water layer, the ultimate trigger of convection that leads to MRPs is the advection of anomalously high upper-ocean-layer salinity. The crucial difference to WSP-producing LR ESM simulations is that in E3SMv0-HR, WSPs are realistically preceded by MRPs, which in turn are a result of the flow around bathymetry being represented with unprecedented detail. |
author |
Kurtakoti, Prajvala Veneziani, Milena Stössel, Achim Weijer, Wilbert |
author_facet |
Kurtakoti, Prajvala Veneziani, Milena Stössel, Achim Weijer, Wilbert |
author_sort |
Kurtakoti, Prajvala |
title |
Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
title_short |
Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
title_full |
Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
title_fullStr |
Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
title_full_unstemmed |
Preconditioning and Formation of Maud Rise Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model |
title_sort |
preconditioning and formation of maud rise polynyas in a high-resolution earth system model |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1483544 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1483544 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(3.000,3.000,-66.000,-66.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Weddell Maud Rise |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Southern Ocean Weddell Sea Weddell Maud Rise |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic ice pack Southern Ocean Weddell Sea |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1483544 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1483544 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-18-0392.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Climate |
container_volume |
31 |
container_issue |
23 |
container_start_page |
9659 |
op_container_end_page |
9678 |
_version_ |
1772809893898616832 |