Modeling strong basal melting at the Shirase Glacier Tongue, East Antarctica
Abstract
Basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves accounts for more than half of mass loss from the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Many studies have focused on active basal melt at ice shelves in the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Sea and the Totten Ice shelf, East Antarctica, pointing out that existence of Circumpolar Deep Water, the warmest water mass below the subsurface layer over the Southern Ocean, is a key component contributing to the strong basal melt rate. These two regions have a common feature: Antarctic Circumpolar Current is within close proximity, and thus Circumpolar Deep Water can affect regional coastal water masses. In the Atlantic sector, there is Weddell Gyre. The Shirase Glacier Tongue in Lützow-Holm Bay, East Antarctica, is located in the south-eastern part of the Weddell Gyre. A recent in-situ oceanographic observational study showed that Circumpolar Deep Water intrudes into Lützow-Holm Bay. Here, we conduct a high-resolution numerical simulation with an ocean-sea ice-ice shelf model to understand ocean structure in the bay and the seasonal variation in basal melt rate at the Shirase Glacier Tongue. The model results demonstrate that the basal melt rate reaches a maximum in summer, which is consistent with seasonal change in the strength of Circumpolar Deep Water intrusion.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.C21D1477K
- Keywords:
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- 0720 Glaciers;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0726 Ice sheets;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 0728 Ice shelves;
- CRYOSPHERE;
- 4207 Arctic and Antarctic oceanography;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL