Iceberg trajectory modeling and meltwater injection in the Southern Ocean

Gladstone, Rupert M.; Bigg, Grant R.; Nicholls, Keith W. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2188-4509. 2001 Iceberg trajectory modeling and meltwater injection in the Southern Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106 (C9). 19,903-19,915. 10.1029/2000JC000347

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Abstract/Summary

This is the first large-scale modeling study of iceberg trajectories and melt rates in the Southern Ocean. An iceberg model was seeded with climatological iceberg calving rates based on a calculation of the net surface accumulation from each snow catchment area on the Antarctic continent. In most areas, modeled trajectories show good agreement with observed patterns of iceberg motion, though discrepencies in the Weddell Sea have highlighted problems in the ocean general circulation model output used to force the iceberg model. The Coriolis force is found to be important in keeping bergs entrained in the coastal current around Antarctica, and topographic features are important in causing bergs to depart from the coastal regions. The modeled geographic distribution of iceberg meltwater joining the ocean has been calculated and is found in many near-coastal regions to be comparable in magnitude to the excess of precipitation over evaporation (P-E).

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/2000JC000347
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Antarctic Science in the Global Context (2000-2005) > Global Interactions of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
ISSN:	0148-0227
Date made live:	03 Jul 2012 11:10 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/18609

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