Seasonal inflow of warm water onto the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf, Antarctica

To capture the austral summer to winter transition in water mass properties over the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf and slope region Weddell seals were tagged with miniaturized conductivity–temperature–depth sensors in February 2011. During the following 8 months the instruments yielded abou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Arthun, Marius, Nicholls, Keith, Makinson, Keith, Fedak, Mike, Boehme, Lars
Other Authors: NERC, University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St Andrews. Marine Alliance for Science & Technology Scotland, University of St Andrews. Sea Mammal Research Unit
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
GC Oceanography
GC
Austral
Weddell
Weddell Sea
Antarc*
Antarctica
Weddell Seals
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3370
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL052856
Description
Summary:To capture the austral summer to winter transition in water mass properties over the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf and slope region Weddell seals were tagged with miniaturized conductivity–temperature–depth sensors in February 2011. During the following 8 months the instruments yielded about 9000 temperature–salinity profiles from a previously undersampled area. This allows, for the first time, a description of the seasonality of warm water intrusions onto the shelf. A temperature section across the Filchner Depression and eastern shelf shows a pronounced decrease in warm water inflow from summer to winter, further supported by an almost 3–year long time series from a shelf–break mooring. The seasonal variability is related to the surface wind stress and an associated deepening of the off–shore core of Warm Deep Water. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed

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