The response of sea ice and high-salinity shelf water in the Ross Ice Shelf Polynya to cyclonic atmosphere circulations

Wang, Xiaoqiao; Zhang, Zhaoru; Dinniman, Michael S.; Uotila, Petteri; Li, Xichen; Zhou, Meng

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1107-2023

Articles | Volume 17, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1107-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1107-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 3

Research article

|

06 Mar 2023

Research article |

| 06 Mar 2023

The response of sea ice and high-salinity shelf water in the Ross Ice Shelf Polynya to cyclonic atmosphere circulations

Xiaoqiao Wang, Zhaoru Zhang, Michael S. Dinniman, Petteri Uotila, Xichen Li, and Meng Zhou

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1107-2023-supplement

Data sets

X. Wang/model outputs for TC-2022-160 Xiaoqiao Wang https://sandbox.zenodo.org/record/1153950

Short summary

The bottom water of the global ocean originates from high-salinity water formed in polynyas in the Southern Ocean where sea ice coverage is low. This study reveals the impacts of cyclones on sea ice and water mass formation in the Ross Ice Shelf Polynya using numerical simulations. Sea ice production is rapidly increased caused by enhancement in offshore wind, promoting high-salinity water formation in the polynya. Cyclones also modulate the transport of this water mass by wind-driven currents.