Wind-induced variability of warm water on the Southern Bellingshausen Sea continental shelf

Oelerich, Ria, Heywood, Karen J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026, Damerell, Gillian M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5808-0822 and Thompson, Andrew F. (2022) Wind-induced variability of warm water on the Southern Bellingshausen Sea continental shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans, 127 (11). ISSN 2169-9275

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Abstract

The Bellingshausen Sea hosts heat transport onto the continental shelf, potentially enhancing ice shelf basal melt. Here, we use the GLORYS12V1 1993–2018 reanalysis to identify physical processes that set seasonal and interannual variability of water mass properties in the Eltanin and Latady Bays on the southern Bellingshausen Sea continental shelf. Annual means of potential temperature from 300 m to the seabed reveal interannual variability and allow separation into warm and cold regimes. The Amundsen Sea Low (ASL) is more intense and extends further east during the warm regime than the cold regime. In the warm regime, a wind-induced reduction of sea ice concentration near the coast increases surface heat loss, convection, and formation of cold dense water in winter, associated with a decrease in heat content of the southern Bellingshausen Sea over time and a net northward heat transport. In contrast, in the cold regime, increased sea ice concentration reduces surface heat loss and thus formation of cold, dense water. Combined with an increase in heat content over time and a net southward heat transport, this results in a warming of the southern Bellingshausen Sea. This suggests that variability in the deep water temperature in the southern Bellingshausen Sea is primarily due to local surface heat fluxes above the shelf. The variability of surface heat fluxes is related to the variability of the ASL and its influence on sea ice extent and local formation of cold, dense water in winter.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This study was supported by the COMPASS project from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no 741120). AFT acknowledges support from NSF OPP-1644172. The authors are grateful to the originators of the many open-access datasets synthesized in this study, the GLO-RYS12V1 reanalysis data (DOI: 10.48670/moi-00021, 2021, Fernandez and Lellouche (2021)), the ERA5 data (DOI: 10.24381/cds.f17050d7, 2021, Hersbach et al. (2019)) and the R-Topo2 data (DOI: 10.1594/PANGAEA.856844, 2021, (Schaffer et al., 2016)).
Uncontrolled Keywords: amundsen sea low,bellingshausen sea,glorys12v1 reanalysis,cold water formation,frontal jet,heat transport,oceanography,geophysics,geochemistry and petrology,earth and planetary sciences (miscellaneous),space and planetary science ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1910
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
University of East Anglia Research Groups/Centres > Theme - ClimateUEA
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 28 Oct 2022 11:30
Last Modified: 14 Jun 2023 14:11
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/89404
DOI: 10.1029/2022JC018636

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