Future climate of the Antarctic is a topic of concern to scientists and to the general public, and has implications for global sea level rise. This paper uses an ocean model driven by high-end atmospheric conditions plausible by late 23rd century to highlight what might happen to the Antarctic ice and its surrounding ocean if our emissions of CO2 continue to rise in an extreme way. The model suggests that the future Antarctic continental shelf would be more like the present day Amundsen Sea – warmer and fresher. This would lead to substantial increases in ice shelf melt rates.

This analytical study investigates the eddy energy dissipation rate for relative wind stress. The derived dissipation rate draws on our fundamental understanding of relative wind stress damping, vertical eddy structure, and eddy energy. The study suggests a method to parameterise the damping of total eddy energy in coarse resolution global climate models, and may have implications for a wide range of climate processes.