TY - JOUR
T1 - Between the devil and the deep blue sea
T2 - The role of the Amundsen Sea continental shelf in exchanges between ocean and ice shelves
AU - Heywood, Karen J.
AU - Biddle, Louise C.
AU - Boehme, Lars
AU - Fedak, Michael
AU - Dutrieux, Pierre
AU - Jenkins, Adrian
AU - Kaiser, Jan
AU - Mallett, Helen
AU - Jones, Richard W.
AU - Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.
AU - Renfrew, Ian A.
AU - Stevens, David P.
AU - Webber, Benjamin G.M.
N1 - This work was supported by funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council’s iSTAR Program through grants NE/J005703/1, NE/J005649/1, NE/J005770/1, NE/J005711/1, and NE/J005746/1. We thank all involved with RRS James Clark Ross cruise 294/295 for making these observations possible. We thank Simon Moss (SMRU) for help with seal tagging and Fabien Roquet (MISU, Stockholm University) for help with processing the seal tag data.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - The Amundsen Sea is a key region of Antarctica where ocean, atmosphere, sea ice, and ice sheet interact. For much of Antarctica, the relatively warm water of the open Southern Ocean (a few degrees above freezing) does not reach the Antarctic continental shelf in large volumes under current climate conditions. However, in the Amundsen Sea, warm water penetrates onto the continental shelf and provides heat that can melt the underside of the area’s floating ice shelves, thinning them. Here, we discuss how the ocean’s role in melting has come under increased scrutiny, present 2014 observations from the Amundsen Sea, and discuss their implications, highlighting aspects where understanding is still incomplete.
AB - The Amundsen Sea is a key region of Antarctica where ocean, atmosphere, sea ice, and ice sheet interact. For much of Antarctica, the relatively warm water of the open Southern Ocean (a few degrees above freezing) does not reach the Antarctic continental shelf in large volumes under current climate conditions. However, in the Amundsen Sea, warm water penetrates onto the continental shelf and provides heat that can melt the underside of the area’s floating ice shelves, thinning them. Here, we discuss how the ocean’s role in melting has come under increased scrutiny, present 2014 observations from the Amundsen Sea, and discuss their implications, highlighting aspects where understanding is still incomplete.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008426458&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5670/oceanog.2016.104
DO - 10.5670/oceanog.2016.104
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85008426458
SN - 1042-8275
VL - 29
SP - 118
EP - 129
JO - Oceanography
JF - Oceanography
IS - 4
ER -
