Antarctic ice shelves are losing mass at drastically different rates, primarily due to differing rates of oceanic heat supply to their bases. However, a generalized theory for the inflow of relatively warm water into ice shelf cavities is lacking. This study proposes such a theory based on a geostrophically constrained inflow, combined with a threshold bathymetric elevation, the Highest Unconnected isoBath (HUB), that obstructs warm water access to ice shelf grounding lines. This theory captures ~90% of the variance in melt rates across a suite of idealized process-oriented ocean/ice shelf simulations with quasi-randomized geometries. Applied to observations of ice shelf geometries and offshore hydrography, the theory captures ~80% of the variance in measured ice shelf melt rates. These findings provide a generalized theoretical framework for melt resulting from buoyancy-driven warm water access to geometrically complex Antarctic ice shelf cavities. 

Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) formation and transport constitute a key component of the global ocean circulation. Direct observations suggest that AABW volumes and transport rates may be decreasing, but these observations are too temporally or spatially sparse to determine the cause. To address this problem, we develop a new method to reconstruct AABW transport variability using data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission. We use an ocean general circulation model to investigate the relationship between ocean bottom pressure and AABW: we calculate both of these quantities in the model, and link them using a regularised linear regression. Our reconstruction from modelled ocean bottom pressure can capture 65-90% of modelled AABW transport variability, depending on the ocean basin. When realistic observational uncertainty values are added to the modelled ocean bottom pressure, the reconstruction can still capture 30-80% of AABW transport variability. Using the same regression values, the reconstruction skill is within the same range in a second, independent, general circulation model. We conclude that our reconstruction method is not unique to the model in which it was developed and can be applied to GRACE satellite observations of ocean bottom pressure. These advances allow us to create the first global reconstruction of AABW transport variability over the satellite era. Our reconstruction provides information on the interannual variability of AABW transport, but more accurate observations are needed to discern AABW transport trends.

A current along a sloping bottom gives rise to upwelling, or downwelling Ekman transport within the stratified bottom boundary layer (BBL), also known as the bottom Ekman layer. In 1D models of slope currents, geostrophic vertical shear resulting from horizontal buoyancy gradients within the BBL is predicted to eventually bring the bottom stress to zero, leading to a shutdown, or \change{\lq arrest \rq \,,}{\lq arrest \rq,} of the BBL. Using 3D ROMS simulations, we explore how the dynamics of buoyancy adjustment in a current-ridge encounter problem differs from 1D and 2D temporal spin up problems. We show that in a downwelling BBL, the destruction of the ageostrophic BBL shear, and hence the bottom stress, is accomplished primarily by nonlinear straining effects during the initial topographic \change{counter}{encounter}. As the current advects along the ridge slopes, the BBL deepens and evolves toward thermal wind balance. The onset of negative potential vorticity (NPV) modes of instability and their subsequent dissipation partially offsets the reduction of the BBL dissipation during the ridge-current interaction. On the upwelling side, although the bottom stress weakens substantially during the encounter, the BBL experiences a horizontal inflectional point instability and separates from the slopes before sustained along-slope stress reduction can \change{occured}{occur}. In all our solutions, both the upwelling and downwelling BBLs are in a partially arrested state when the current separates from the ridge slope, characterized by a reduced, but non-zero bottom stress on the slopes.

A current along a sloping bottom gives rise to upwelling, or downwelling Ekman transport within the stratified bottom boundary layer (BBL), also known as the bottom Ekman layer. In 1D models of slope currents, geostrophic vertical shear resulting from horizontal buoyancy gradients within the BBL is predicted to eventually bring the bottom stress to zero, leading to a shutdown, or \lq arrest \rq \, , of the BBL. Using 3D ROMS simulations, we explore how the dynamics of buoyancy adjustment in a current-ridge encounter problem differs from 1D and 2D temporal spin up problems. We show that in a downwelling BBL, the destruction of the ageostrophic BBL shear, and hence the bottom stress, is accomplished primarily by nonlinear straining effects during the initial topographic counter. As the current advects along the ridge slopes, the BBL deepens and evolves toward thermal wind balance. The onset of negative potential vorticity (NPV) modes of instability and their subsequent dissipation partially offsets the reduction of the BBL dissipation during the ridge-current interaction. On the upwelling side, although the bottom stress weakens substantially during the encounter, the BBL experiences a horizontal inflectional point instability and separates from the slopes before sustained along-slope stress reduction can occurred. In all our solutions, both the upwelling and downwelling BBLs are in a partially arrested state when the current separates from the ridge slope, characterized by a reduced, but non-zero bottom stress on the slopes.

The connections between Greenland’s tidewater glaciers and the continental shelf waters are modulated by fjords that are geometrically complex with numerous modes of variability. These fjords transport heat towards the glaciers and meltwater away, with a renewal determined by a range of factors including buoyancy forcing at the surface (surface melt) and at depth (subglacial discharge), wind stresses, shelf currents, bathymetry, and mixing processes. This study aims to classify the various regimes of flow and fjord renewal over the diverse parameter space of Greenland fjords with an emphasis on investigating the role of shelf-driven variability and mixing. We conduct idealized numerical simulations using MITgcm to explore how fjord renewal is controlled by elements of the shelf and fjord geometry, and by thermodynamic and mechanical forcings, with domains consisting of idealized bays and shelves representative of Greenland. Specifically, we investigate the sensitivity of the renewal to the following dynamic/thermodynamic influences: (a) bathymetric sills and their influence on mixing, (b) horizontal constrictions (peninsulas, islands, turns), (c) ice cover, and (d) subglacial meltwater discharge. To explain our numerical model results, we develop dynamical theories for the exchange flow as a function of the geometric and forcing parameters.

Fjord circulation modulates the connection between marine-terminating glaciers and the ocean currents offshore. These fjords exhibit both overturning and horizontal recirculations, which are driven by water mass transformation at the head of the fjord via subglacial discharge plumes and distributed meltwater plumes. However, little is known about the interaction between the 3D fjord circulation and glacial melt and how relevant fjord properties influence them. In this study, high-resolution numerical simulations of idealized glacial fjords demonstrate that recirculation strength controls melt, which feeds back on overturning and recirculation. The overturning circulation strength is well predicted by existed plume models for face-wide melt and subglacial discharge, while relationships between the overturning, recirculation, and melt rate are well predicted by vorticity balance, reduced-order melt parameterizations, and empirical scaling arguments. These theories allow improved predictions of fjord overturning, recirculation, and glacial melt by taking intrafjord dynamics into account.

The Antarctic Slope Front (ASF) is a strong gradient in water mass properties close to the Antarctic margins. Heat transport across the ASF is important to Earth’s climate, as it influences melting of ice shelves, the formation of bottom water, and thus the global meridional overturning circulation. Previous studies based on relatively low-resolution models have reported contradictory findings regarding the impact of additional meltwater on onshore heat transport onto the Antarctic continental shelf: it remains unclear whether meltwater enhances shoreward heat transport, leading to a positive feedback, or further isolates the continental shelf from the open ocean. In this study, heat transport across the ASF is investigated using high-resolution, process-oriented simulations. It is found that shoreward heat transport is primarily controlled by the salinity gradient of the shelf waters: both freshening and salinification of the shelf waters relative to the offshore waters lead to increased heat flux onto the continental shelf. For salty shelves, the overturning consists of a dense water outflow that drives a shoreward heat flux near the seafloor; for fresh shelves, there is a shallow, eddy-driven overturning circulation that is associated with an export of fresh surface waters and a near-surface shoreward heat flux. The eddy-driven overturning associated with coastal freshening may lead to a positive feedback in a warming climate: large volumes of meltwater increase shoreward heat transport, causing further melt of ice shelves.

The Antarctic Slope Current (ASC) plays a central role in redistributing water masses, sea ice, and tracer properties around the Antarctic margins, and in mediating cross-slope exchanges. While the ASC has historically been understood as a wind-driven circulation, recent studies have highlighted important momentum transfers due to mesoscale eddies and tidal flows. Furthermore, momentum input due to wind stress is transferred through sea ice to the ASC during most of the year, yet previous studies have typically considered the circulations of the ocean and sea ice independently. Thus it remains unclear to what extent the momentum input from the winds is mediated by sea ice, tidal forcing, and transient eddies in the ocean, and how the resulting momentum transfers serve to structure the ASC. In this study the dynamics of the coupled ocean/sea ice ASC circulation are investigated using high-resolution process-oriented simulations, and interpreted with the aid of a reduced-order model. In almost all simulations considered here, sea ice redistributes almost 100% of the wind stress away from the continental slope, resulting in approximately identical sea ice and ocean surface flows in the core of the ASC. This ice-ocean coupling results from suppression of vertical momentum transfer by mesoscale eddies over the continental slope, which allows the sea ice to accelerate the ocean surface flow until the speeds coincide. Tidal acceleration of the along-slope flow exaggerates this effect, and may even result in ocean-to-ice momentum transfer. The implications of these findings for along-and across-slope transport of water masses and sea ice around Antarctica are discussed.