Baroclinic Ocean Response to Climate Forcing Regulates Decadal Variability of Ice‐Shelf Melting in the Amundsen Sea

Silvano, Alessandro; Holland, Paul R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8370-289X; Naughten, Kaitlin A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9475-9162; Dragomir, Oana; Dutrieux, Pierre ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8066-934X; Jenkins, Adrian; Si, Yidongfang; Stewart, Andrew L.; Peña Molino, Beatriz; Janzing, Gregor W.; Dotto, Tiago S.; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.. 2022 Baroclinic Ocean Response to Climate Forcing Regulates Decadal Variability of Ice‐Shelf Melting in the Amundsen Sea. Geophysical Research Letters, 49 (24), e2022GL100646. 10, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100646

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Official URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.102...

Abstract/Summary

Warm ocean waters drive rapid ice-shelf melting in the Amundsen Sea. The ocean heat transport toward the ice shelves is associated with the Amundsen Undercurrent, a near-bottom current that flows eastward along the shelf break and transports warm waters onto the continental shelf via troughs. Here we use a regional ice-ocean model to show that, on decadal time scales, the undercurrent's variability is baroclinic (depth-dependent). Decadal ocean surface cooling in the tropical Pacific results in cyclonic wind anomalies over the Amundsen Sea. These wind anomalies drive a westward perturbation of the shelf-break surface flow and an eastward anomaly (strengthening) of the undercurrent, leading to increased ice-shelf melting. This contrasts with shorter time scales, for which surface current and undercurrent covary, a barotropic (depth-independent) behavior previously assumed to apply at all time scales. This suggests that interior ocean processes mediate the decadal ice-shelf response in the Amundsen Sea to climate forcing.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100646
ISSN:	0094-8276
Additional Keywords:	Amundsen Sea, ice shelf, basal melting, Pine Island Glacier, undercurrent, decadal variability
Date made live:	15 Dec 2022 12:31 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/533728

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL100646

ISSN:

0094-8276

Additional Keywords:

Amundsen Sea, ice shelf, basal melting, Pine Island Glacier, undercurrent, decadal variability

Date made live:

15 Dec 2022 12:31 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/533728