Abstract
ABSTRACTInformation on the occurrence, spatial distribution and morphometric characteristics of Antarctic icebergs is needed in a large number of applications including navigation, heat and freshwater balance calculations, biochemistry of the ocean and climatology. Using over 60 000 ship observations of icebergs in the Southern Ocean collected since the end of the 1940s we have produced a detailed map of the distribution of Antarctic icebergs as well as maps of related statistics including the standard deviation, minimum and maximum values of the iceberg concentration and the probability of iceberg-free observations. The study incorporated small and medium-sized icebergs with a length of <10 nautical miles. Most observations were taken during the warm period of the year, from December to April. It is shown that the iceberg distribution across the Southern Ocean is determined by the location of calving regions and peculiarities of the atmospheric circulation and ocean currents. Iceberg concentration data combined with information on the iceberg size and shape distribution have been used to evaluate the area-integrated characteristics of Antarctic icebergs. The instantaneous number of icebergs in the Southern Ocean was estimated as 132 269 with an uncertainty of 7%. The area and volume of icebergs were equal correspondingly to 55 805 km2 and 16 893 km3 with uncertainties of 32–33%.
Highlights
Icebergs present an intrinsic element of Antarctic waters
Icebergs of different shape and size are formed through calving off ice shelves and outlet glaciers, as well as from the continental ice barrier (Shilnikov, 1969)
When grounded in shallow waters, large icebergs can block the path of drifting ice and cause a radical change in the hydrological and hydro-biological environment (e.g., Arrigo and van Dijken, 2003)
Summary
Icebergs present an intrinsic element of Antarctic waters. They are defined as massive floating bodies of freshwater ice whose height above the water level (or freeboard), length and width exceed correspondingly 5, 15 and 10 m. (WMO, 1970; Borodachev and others, 1994). Icebergs affect navigation safety (Romanov, 1996b), control to a large extent, stratification and biochemical reactions in the waters of the Southern Ocean (Schwarts and Schodlock, 2009; Smith, 2011), and participate in the transfer of terrigenous material from the mainland to the ocean (Matsumoto, 1996; Licitzin, 2012). They are an important source of fresh water (Weeks and Campbell, 1973; Spandonide, 2012) and can be used as tracers to characterize the water circulation (Radikevich and Romanov, 1995). Other active areas of iceberg research include, but are not limited to mechanisms of the iceberg formation and decay (Provorkin, 1996; Massom, 2003; Wesche and others, 2013), the physical structure of icebergs (Popov and Voevodin, 1996) and their dynamics
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