Warm Circumpolar Deep Water at the Western Getz Ice Shelf Front, Antarctica

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Assmann, Karen, Darelius, Elin Maria K., Wåhlin, Anna K., Kim, Tae Wan, Lee, Sang Hoon
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2019
• Subjects: Antarctica; ice shelves; Circumpolar Deep Water; Polar oceanography; Polaroseanografi; VDP::Matematikk og naturvitenskap: 400::Geofag: 450::Oseanografi: 452; VDP::Mathematics and natural scienses: 400::Geosciences: 450::Oceanography: 452; Amundsen Sea; Siple; Getz; Getz Ice Shelf; Siple Island; Antarc*; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1956/21577; https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl081354

The Getz Ice Shelf is one of the largest sources of fresh water from ice shelf basal melt in Antarctica. We present new observations from three moorings west of Siple Island 2016–2018. All moorings show a persistent flow of modified Circumpolar Deep Water toward the western Getz Ice Shelf. Unmodified Circumpolar Deep Water with temperatures up to 1.5 °C reaches the ice shelf front in frequent episodes. These represent the warmest water observed at any ice shelf front in the Amundsen Sea. Mean currents within the warm bottom layer of 18–20 cm/s imply an advection time scale of 7 days from shelf break to ice shelf front. Zonal wind stress at the shelf break affects heat content at the ice shelf front on weekly to monthly time scales. Our 2‐year mooring records also evince that upwelling over the shelf break controls thermocline depth on subannual to annual time scales. publishedVersion