Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water
Strong heat loss and brine release during sea ice formation in coastal polynyas act to cool and salinify waters on the Antarctic continental shelf. Polynya activity thus both limits the ocean heat flux to the Antarctic Ice Sheet and promotes formation of Dense Shelf Water (DSW), the precursor to Ant...
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ftunivtasecite:oai:ecite.utas.edu.au:125485 2023-05-15T13:23:53+02:00 Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water Silvano, A Rintoul, SR Pena-Molino, B Hobbs, WR van Wijk, E Aoki, S Tamura, T Williams, GD 2018 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29675467 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/125485 en eng American Association for the Advancement of Science http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 Silvano, A and Rintoul, SR and Pena-Molino, B and Hobbs, WR and van Wijk, E and Aoki, S and Tamura, T and Williams, GD, Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, Science Advances, 4, (4) Article eaap9467. ISSN 2375-2548 (2018) [Refereed Article] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29675467 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/125485 Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Refereed Article PeerReviewed 2018 ftunivtasecite https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 2019-12-13T22:24:00Z Strong heat loss and brine release during sea ice formation in coastal polynyas act to cool and salinify waters on the Antarctic continental shelf. Polynya activity thus both limits the ocean heat flux to the Antarctic Ice Sheet and promotes formation of Dense Shelf Water (DSW), the precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water. However, despite the presence of strong polynyas, DSW is not formed on the Sabrina Coast in East Antarctica and in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Using a simple ocean model driven by observed forcing, we show that freshwater input from basal melt of ice shelves partially offsets the salt flux by sea ice formation in polynyas found in both regions, preventing full-depth convection and formation of DSW. In the absence of deep convection, warm water that reaches the continental shelf in the bottom layer does not lose much heat to the atmosphere and is thus available to drive the rapid basal melt observed at the Totten Ice Shelf on the Sabrina Coast and at the Dotson and Getz ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea. Our results suggest that increased glacial meltwater input in a warming climate will both reduce Antarctic Bottom Water formation and trigger increased mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with consequences for the global overturning circulation and sea level rise. Article in Journal/Newspaper Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice Totten Ice Shelf West Antarctica eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) Antarctic The Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Amundsen Sea Getz ENVELOPE(-145.217,-145.217,-76.550,-76.550) Sabrina Coast ENVELOPE(118.550,118.550,-67.000,-67.000) Science Advances 4 4 eaap9467 |
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Open Polar |
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eCite UTAS (University of Tasmania) |
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ftunivtasecite |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
spellingShingle |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography Silvano, A Rintoul, SR Pena-Molino, B Hobbs, WR van Wijk, E Aoki, S Tamura, T Williams, GD Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
topic_facet |
Earth Sciences Oceanography Physical Oceanography |
description |
Strong heat loss and brine release during sea ice formation in coastal polynyas act to cool and salinify waters on the Antarctic continental shelf. Polynya activity thus both limits the ocean heat flux to the Antarctic Ice Sheet and promotes formation of Dense Shelf Water (DSW), the precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water. However, despite the presence of strong polynyas, DSW is not formed on the Sabrina Coast in East Antarctica and in the Amundsen Sea in West Antarctica. Using a simple ocean model driven by observed forcing, we show that freshwater input from basal melt of ice shelves partially offsets the salt flux by sea ice formation in polynyas found in both regions, preventing full-depth convection and formation of DSW. In the absence of deep convection, warm water that reaches the continental shelf in the bottom layer does not lose much heat to the atmosphere and is thus available to drive the rapid basal melt observed at the Totten Ice Shelf on the Sabrina Coast and at the Dotson and Getz ice shelves in the Amundsen Sea. Our results suggest that increased glacial meltwater input in a warming climate will both reduce Antarctic Bottom Water formation and trigger increased mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet, with consequences for the global overturning circulation and sea level rise. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Silvano, A Rintoul, SR Pena-Molino, B Hobbs, WR van Wijk, E Aoki, S Tamura, T Williams, GD |
author_facet |
Silvano, A Rintoul, SR Pena-Molino, B Hobbs, WR van Wijk, E Aoki, S Tamura, T Williams, GD |
author_sort |
Silvano, A |
title |
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
title_short |
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
title_full |
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
title_fullStr |
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
title_full_unstemmed |
Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water |
title_sort |
freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of antarctic bottom water |
publisher |
American Association for the Advancement of Science |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29675467 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/125485 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-145.217,-145.217,-76.550,-76.550) ENVELOPE(118.550,118.550,-67.000,-67.000) |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Amundsen Sea Getz Sabrina Coast |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic East Antarctica West Antarctica Amundsen Sea Getz Sabrina Coast |
genre |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice Totten Ice Shelf West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Amundsen Sea Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Sea ice Totten Ice Shelf West Antarctica |
op_relation |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 Silvano, A and Rintoul, SR and Pena-Molino, B and Hobbs, WR and van Wijk, E and Aoki, S and Tamura, T and Williams, GD, Freshening by glacial meltwater enhances melting of ice shelves and reduces formation of Antarctic Bottom Water, Science Advances, 4, (4) Article eaap9467. ISSN 2375-2548 (2018) [Refereed Article] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29675467 http://ecite.utas.edu.au/125485 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9467 |
container_title |
Science Advances |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
eaap9467 |
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1766376104024604672 |