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On the Generation of Weddell Sea Polynyas in a High-Resolution Earth System Model

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Larger Weddell Sea polynyas (WSPs), differentiated in this study from the smaller Maud Rise Polynyas (MRPs), forming to the east of the prime meridian in the proximity of the Maud Rise seamount, have last been observed in the 1970s. We investigate WSPs that grow realistically out of MRPs in a high-resolution (HR) preindustrial simulation with the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 0.1. The formation of MRPs requires HR to simulate the detailed flow around Maud Rise, while the realistic formation of WSPs requires a model to produce MRPs. Furthermore, WSPs tend to follow periods of a prolonged build-up of a heat reservoir at depth and weakly negative wind-stress curl in association with the core of the southern hemisphere westerlies at an anomalously northern position. While this scenario also leads to drier conditions over the central Weddell Sea, which some literature claims to be a necessary condition for the formation of WSPs, our model results indicate that open-ocean polynyas do not occur during periods of weakly negative wind-stress curl despite drier atmospheric conditions. Our study supports the hypothesis noted in earlier studies that a shift from a weakly negative to a strongly negative wind-stress curl over the Weddell Sea is a prerequisite for WSPs to form, together with a large heat reservoir at depth. However, the ultimate trigger is a pronounced MRP; whose associated convection creates high surface salinity anomalies that propagate westward with the flow of the Weddell Gyre. If large enough, these anomalies trigger the formation of a WSP and a pulse of newly formed Antarctic Bottom Water.
Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1762733
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1807832
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--20-22461
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Journal Name: Journal of Climate Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 34; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Figures / Tables (20)

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