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Sensitivity of coastal polynyas and high-salinity shelf water production in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to the atmospheric forcing

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Abstract

Coastal polynyas around Antarctica are the place of intense air–sea exchanges which eventually lead to the formation of high-salinity shelf waters (HSSW) over continental shelves. Here, the influence of atmospheric forcing on coastal polynyas in the Ross Sea is studied by contrasting the response of a regional ocean/sea-ice circulation model to two different atmospheric forcing sets. A first forcing (DFS3) is based on ERA40 atmospheric surface variables and satellite products. A second forcing (MAR) is produced on the basis of ERA40 with a dynamical downscaling procedure. As compared to DFS3, MAR forcing is shown to improve substantially the representation of small-scale patterns of coastal winds with stronger katabatic winds along the coast. The response of the ocean/sea-ice model to the two forcing sets shows that the MAR forcing improves substantially the geographical distribution of polynyas in the Ross Sea. With the MAR forcing, the polynya season is also shown to last longer with a greater ice-production rate. As a consequence, a greater flow of dense water out of the polynyas is found with the MAR forcing and the properties of HSSW are notably improved as compared to the DFS3 forcing. The factors contributing to the activity of Terra Nova Bay and Ross Ice Shelf polynyas in the model are studied in detail. The general picture that emerges from our simulations is that the properties of HSSW are mostly set by brine rejection when the polynya season resume. We found that coastal polynyas in the Ross Sea export about 0.4 Sv of HSSW which then flows along three separate channels over the Ross Shelf. A 6-month time lag is observed between the peak of activity of polynyas and the maximum transport across the sills in the channels with a maximum transport of about 1 Sv in February. This lag corresponds to the time it takes to the newly formed HSSW to spread from the polynya to the sills (at a speed of nearly 2 cm s−1).

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Notes

  1. Note that MAR katabatic winds decrease off-shore whereas DFS3 winds increase. Consequently, the averaged wind speed over the whole area of the TNB polynya is similar in both experiments (Table 2).

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support from Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Recherche and from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). This work is a contribution of the DRAKKAR project. Support to DRAKKAR comes from various grants and programmes listed hereafter: French national programmes GMMC, LEFE, and PICS2475. The contribution of Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers (INSU) to these programmes is particularly acknowledged. DRAKKAR acknowledge the support from the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) through the OST/ST. Computations presented in this study were performed at Institut du Développement et des Ressources en Informatique Scientifique (IDRIS) and on the local MIRAGE computer. Partial support from the European Commission under Contract SIP3-CT-2003-502885 (MERSEA project) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors are also grateful to the members of the Drakkar Group for their lively discussions and comments during the annual DRAKKAR meeting. Josiane Brasseur is thanked for her continuous support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research, Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 2 Chemin du cyclotron, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Pierre Mathiot

  2. CNRS/UJF Grenoble 1, Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels (LEGI), Grenoble, France

    Pierre Mathiot, Nicolas C. Jourdain, Bernard Barnier, Jean Marc Molines, Julien Le Sommer & Thierry Penduff

  3. CNRS/UJF Grenoble 1, Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement (LGGE), Grenoble, France

    Nicolas C. Jourdain & Hubert Gallée

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  1. Pierre Mathiot
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Mathiot, P., Jourdain, N.C., Barnier, B. et al. Sensitivity of coastal polynyas and high-salinity shelf water production in the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to the atmospheric forcing. Ocean Dynamics 62, 701–723 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-012-0531-y

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