Variability of dense water formation in the Ross Sea |
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Authors: | Karen M Assmann Ralph Timmermann |
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Institution: | (1) Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bussestr. 24, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany;(2) Present address: Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Allégalen 55, 5007 Bergen, Norway |
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Abstract: | This paper presents results from a model study of the interannual variability of high salinity shelf water (HSSW) properties
in the Ross Sea. Salinity and potential temperature of HSSW formed in the western Ross Sea show oscillatory behaviour at periods
of 5–6 and 9 years superimposed on long-term fluctuations. While the shorter oscillations are induced by wind variability,
variability on the scale of decades appears to be related to air temperature fluctuations. At least part of the strong decrease
of HSSW salinities deduced from observations for the period 1963–2000 is shown to be an aliasing artefact due to an undersampling
of the periodic signal. While sea ice formation is responsible for the yearly salinity increase that triggers the formation
of HSSW, interannual variability of net freezing rates hardly affects changes in the properties of the resulting water mass.
Instead, results from model experiments indicate that the interannual variability of dense water characteristics is predominantly
controlled by variations in the shelf inflow through a sub-surface salinity and a deep temperature signal. The origin of the
variability of inflow characteristics to the Ross Sea continental shelf can be traced into the Amundsen and Bellingshausen
Seas. The temperature anomalies are induced at the continental shelf break in the western Bellingshausen Sea by fluctuations
of the meridional transport of circumpolar deep water with the eastern cell of the Ross Gyre. In the Amundsen Sea, upwelling
due to a persistently cyclonic wind field carries the signal into the surface mixed layer, leading to fluctuations of the
vertical heat flux, anomalies of brine release near the sea ice edge, and consequently to a sub-surface salinity anomaly.
With the westward flowing coastal current, both the sub-surface salinity and deep temperature signals are advected onto the
Ross Sea continental shelf. Convection carries the signal of salinity variability into the deep ocean, where it interacts
with modified circumpolar deep water upwelled onto the continental shelf as the second source water mass of HSSW. Sea ice
formation on the Ross Sea continental shelf thus drives the vertical propagation of the signal rather than determining the
signal itself. |
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Keywords: | Numerical modelling BRIOS Ross Sea Amundsen Sea Interannual variability High salinity shelf water (HSSW) |
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