Decadal variability of ice-shelf melting in the Amundsen Sea driven by sea-ice freshwater fluxes

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• Michael Haigh, British Antarctic Survey
• Wednesday 24 January 2024, 14:00-15:00
• BAS Seminar Room 1; https://ukri.zoom.us/j/92483527729.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Birgit Rogalla.

The ice streams flowing into the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica, are losing mass due to changes in the oceanic basal melting of their floating ice shelves. Rapid ice-shelf melting is sustained by the delivery of warm Circumpolar Deep Water to the ice-shelf cavities, which is first supplied to the continental shelf by an undercurrent that flows eastward along the shelf break. Temporal variability of this undercurrent controls variations in ice-shelf basal melt. Recent work shows that on decadal timescales the undercurrent variability opposes surface wind variability. Using a regional model, we show that this undercurrent variability is driven by sea-ice freshwater fluxes, particularly those north of the shelf break, which affect the cross-shelf break density gradient. This sea-ice variability is caused by tropical Pacific variability impacting atmospheric conditions over the Amundsen Sea. Ice-shelf melting also feeds back onto the undercurrent by affecting the on-shelf density and thereby influencing shelf-break density gradient anomalies.

This talk is part of the British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series series.

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