Wintertime ocean conditions over the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf, Antarctica

Nicholls, Keith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2188-4509; Boehme, Lars; Biuw, Martin; Fedak, Mike A.. 2008 Wintertime ocean conditions over the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf, Antarctica. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L21605. 5, pp. https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035742

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Abstract/Summary

During the austral winter of 2007 a Weddell Seal tagged with a miniaturized conductivity-temperature-depth (CTD) instrument travelled over the central southern Weddell Sea continental shelf. The instrument yielded 750 CTD profiles, 250 of them to the sea floor. The data show a full depth flow of water onto the shelf via a sill at the shelf break (74°S 44°W). The warmth from the core of the flow was able to maintain the surface mixed layer above the freezing point, resulting in a band of reduced ice-production. An estimate of the on-shelf flux suggests that this flow accounts for most of the estimated 3 Sv of water draining from the southern Weddell Sea continental shelf.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035742
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Global Science in the Antarctic Context (2005-2009) > Antarctic Climate and the Earth System
ISSN:	0094-8276
NORA Subject Terms:	Marine Sciences
Date made live:	06 Nov 2009 15:55 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/6903

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