Ross Ice Shelf frontal zone subjected to increasing melting by ocean surface waters

Sheehan, Peter M. F. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4906-5724 and Heywood, Karen J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9859-0026 (2024) Ross Ice Shelf frontal zone subjected to increasing melting by ocean surface waters. Science Advances, 10 (45). ISSN 2375-2548

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Abstract

Solar-warmed surface waters subduct beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves as a result of wind forcing, but this process is poorly observed and its interannual variability is yet to be assessed. We observe a 50-meter-thick intrusion of warm surface water immediately beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. Temperature in the uppermost 5 meters decreases toward the ice base in near-perfect agreement with an exponential fit, consistent with the loss of heat to the over-lying ice. Ekman forcing drives a heat transport into the cavity sufficient to contribute considerably to near-front melting; this transport has increased over the past four decades, driven by the increasing heat content of the ice-front polynya. Interannual variability of the heat transport is driven by zonal wind stress. These results provide a benchmark against which model performance may be assessed as we seek to reduce uncertainty around the contribution of basal melting to sea level rise.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Daily mean sea ice concentration data were obtained from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (43) (Ross Sea 3.125-km resolution product) published by the University of Bremen; instructions for access may be found at http://seaice.uni-bremen.de/data-archive/. BedMachine v3 (44, 45) is available from the National Snow and Ice Data Center with the DOI: doi.org/10.5067/FPSU0V1MWUB6. Seaglider observations used in this study have been archived at the British Oceanographic Data Centre under the DOI: doi.org/10.5285/0a1c43b9-4738-75e0-e063-6c86abc0ea24. The CATS2008 tide model (24, 25) is available from the US Antarctic Program Data Center under the DOI: doi.org/10.15784/601235. ERA5 reanalysis hourly output (41) is archived at the Copernicus Climate Data Store under the DOI: doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47. Observations from the Laurie II automatic weather station are available from the Antarctic Meteorological Research and Data Center under the DOI: doi.org/10.48567/k7ej-2s84. The World Ocean Atlas 2018 (42) is available at www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/world-ocean-atlas-2018. Funding information: We thank the Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Science Foundation (United States), and the staff of McMurdo Station for funding and logistical support for the glider deployment. K.J.H. was supported by P2P: Predators to Plankton (Natural Environment Research Council: grant NE/W00755X/1), and both P.M.F.S. and K.J.H. were supported by COMPASS: Climate-relevant Ocean Measurements and Processes on the Antarctic Continental Shelf and Slope (European Research Council, Horizon 2020: grant 741120).
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
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	12 Nov 2024 11:30
Last Modified:	08 Dec 2024 01:39
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97640
DOI:	10.1126/sciadv.ado6429

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