Impacts of open-ocean deep convection in the Weddell Sea on coastal and bottom water temperature

Abstract

A high resolution global ocean–sea ice model is employed to investigate the impacts of open-ocean deep convection on coastal and bottom water temperature in the Weddell Sea. The imposed strong and persistent cyclonic wind forcing and the large loss of bottom water weaken the stratification and eventually trigger the occurrence of open-ocean deep convection in the southern limb of the Weddell Gyre in this model. The production rate of the bottom water induced by the deep convection is estimated to be about 5 Sv (1 Sv = 106 m3/s) for a polynya with a similar size to that of the observed Weddell Polynya in the mid-1970s. The cooling induced by deep convection at mid-depth is transported towards the shelf regions by standing meanders or eddies to affect the basal melting of ice shelves, and is transported westward by an intensified slope current; interior coastal temperature in regions with a broader continental shelf is less affected by the deep convection, as the intensified slope current acts to suppress heat exchanges across the shelf break. Also, the deep convection causes warming in the Weddell bottom water around the convection site, when the simulated polynya size is similar to that of the observed Weddell Polynya in the mid-1970s. This finding sheds light on the observed non-monotonic decadal change (cooling between 1984–1992 and warming between 1998–2008) in the Weddell bottom water temperature. When the simulated polynya further develops into a large size across the Weddell Sea, the sustained broad deep convection causes large cooling in the bottom water in the western Weddell Sea and warming in the eastern Weddell Sea, with the bottom water temperature also being strongly modulated by a greatly intensified Weddell Gyre.