Variation in the distribution and properties of Circumpolar Deep Water in the eastern Amundsen Sea, on seasonal timescales, using seal‐borne tags

Mallett, Helen K. W., Boehme, Lars, Fedak, Mike, Heywood, Karen J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026, Stevens, David P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7283-4405 and Roquet, Fabien (2018) Variation in the distribution and properties of Circumpolar Deep Water in the eastern Amundsen Sea, on seasonal timescales, using seal‐borne tags. Geophysical Research Letters, 45 (10). pp. 4982-4990. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

In the Amundsen Sea, warm saline Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) crosses the continental shelf toward the vulnerable West Antarctic ice shelves, contributing to their basal melting. Due to lack of observations, little is known about the spatial and temporal variability of CDW, particularly seasonally. A new dataset of 6704 seal‐tag temperature and salinity profiles in the easternmost trough between February and December 2014 reveals a CDW layer on average 49 db thicker in late winter (August to October) than in late summer (February to April), the reverse seasonality of that seen at moorings in the western trough. This layer contains more heat in winter, but on the 27.76 kg/m3 density surface CDW is 0.32° C warmer in summer than winter, across the northeastern Amundsen sea, which may indicate wintertime shoaling offshelf changes CDW properties onshelf. In Pine Island Bay these seasonal changes on density surfaces are reduced, likely by gyre circulation.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: pine island glacier,ice‐melt,circumpolar deep water,amundsen sea
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Mathematics (former - to 2024)
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluid and Solid Mechanics (former - to 2024)
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluids & Structures
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Numerical Simulation, Statistics & Data Science
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 24 May 2018 14:30
Last Modified: 07 Nov 2024 12:40
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67166
DOI: 10.1029/2018GL077430

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