Project information
Project aim
Floating ice shelves interact with the oceans. They drive a vertical overturning circulation, causing relatively warmer water to be transported into the shelf cavity. This warm water melts the shelf, creating a less dense and relatively fresh water that flows out from under the ice shelf. Ice shelves around the Antarctic Continent contribute ~2000 Gt.a-1 of freshwater (or 100 mm.a-1 over region covered by sea-ice during winter) to the oceans, and if the entire ice sheet could melt would raise sea-level by 70m. This project will estimate the ocean-ice shelf interaction for the Amery Ice Shelf in Prydz Bay using ocean measurements of temperature, salinity and velocity to estimate the melt rate of the ice-shelf. This work establishes a measurment system for monitoring changes to ice-shelf as response to climate change.
Related publications
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Antarctic coastal polynya response to climate change Journal of Geophysical Research, 2007
(Ref: 13294)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
Sensitivity of sea ice formation and dense shelf water production to perturbations of … air temperature, precipitation, and wind stress in an important Antarctic coastal polynya … system is investigated.
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Interdecadal water mass changes in the Southern Ocean between 30°E and 160°E Geophysical Research Letters, 2005
(Ref: 13293)
Authors:Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
Interdecadal water mass changes in the Indian -Western … Pacific sectors of the Southern Ocean were investigated … using the Japanese Antarctic Research Expeditions and … historical hydrographic observations from the 1950s to … 1990s.
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Wintertime oceanography of the Adelie Depression Deep-Sea Research Part II, 2003
(Ref: 13252)
Authors:Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
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The World during WOCE WOCE Conference volume, 2001
(Ref: 13244)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature
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Recent investigations of the Mertz Polynya and George Vth Land continental margin, East Antarctica Deep-Sea Research, Part II, 2003
(Ref: 13243)
Category 1: Peer-reviewed literature