Articles | Volume 20, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-85-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-20-85-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 Jan 2024
Research article |
| 22 Jan 2024
| 22 Jan 2024
Altered Weddell Sea warm- and dense-water pathways in response to 21st-century climate change
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
Ralph Timmermann
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Mathias van Caspel
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
Claudia Wekerle
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, Bremerhaven, Germany
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Cara Nissen and Meike Vogt
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Claudia Wekerle, Tore Hattermann, Qiang Wang, Laura Crews, Wilken-Jon von Appen, and Sergey Danilov
Ocean Sci., 16, 1225–1246, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1225-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-16-1225-2020, 2020
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The high-resolution ocean models ROMS and FESOM configured for the Fram Strait reveal very energetic ocean conditions there. The two main currents meander strongly and shed circular currents of water, called eddies. Our analysis shows that this region is characterised by small and short-lived eddies (on average around a 5 km radius and 10 d lifetime). Both models agree on eddy properties and show similar patterns of baroclinic and barotropic instability of the West Spitsbergen Current.
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Short summary
The southeastern Weddell Sea is important for global ocean circulation due to the cross-shelf-break exchange of Dense Shelf Water and Warm Deep Water, but their exact circulation pathways remain elusive. Using Lagrangian model experiments in an eddy-permitting ocean model, we show how present circulation pathways and transit times of these water masses on the continental shelf are altered by 21st-century climate change, which has implications for local ice-shelf basal melt rates and ecosystems.
The southeastern Weddell Sea is important for global ocean circulation due to the...
