Warm Circumpolar Deep Water transport toward Antarctica driven by local dense water export in canyons

Poleward transport of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) has been linked to melting of Antarctic ice shelves. However, even the steady-state spatial distribution and mechanisms of CDW transport remain poorly understood. Using a global, eddying ocean model, we explore the relationship between the cros...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science Advances
Main Authors: Morrison, AK, McC. Hogg, A, England, MH, Spence, P
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2020
Subjects:
Antarc*
Antarctic
Antarctica
Ice Shelves
Ross Sea
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/unsworks_74586
https://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/bitstreams/4321f19c-090d-4f96-9540-0b38e0dca1df/download
https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav2516
Description
Summary:Poleward transport of warm Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) has been linked to melting of Antarctic ice shelves. However, even the steady-state spatial distribution and mechanisms of CDW transport remain poorly understood. Using a global, eddying ocean model, we explore the relationship between the cross-slope transports of CDW and descending Dense Shelf Water (DSW). We find large spatial variability in CDW heat and volume transport around Antarctica, with substantially enhanced flow where DSW descends in canyons. The CDW and DSW transports are highly spatially correlated within ~20 km and temporally correlated on subdaily time scales. Focusing on the Ross Sea, we show that the relationship is driven by pulses of overflowing DSW lowering sea surface height, leading to net onshore CDW transport. The majority of simulated onshore CDW transport is concentrated in cold-water regions, rather than warm-water regions, with potential implications for ice-ocean interactions and global sea level rise.

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