Temporal variability of the Circumpolar Deep Water inflow onto the Ross Sea continental shelf

Abstract

The intrusion of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) is the primary source of heat, salt and nutrients onto Antarctica's continental shelves and plays a major role in the shelf physical and biological processes.Different studies have analyzed the processes responsible for the transport of CDW across the Ross Sea shelf break, but until now, there are no continuous observations that investigate the timing of the intrusions. Also, few works have focused on the effect of the tides that control these intrusions.In the Ross Sea, the CDW intrudes onto the shelf in several locations, but mostly along the troughs.We use hydrographic observations and a mooring placed on the outer shelf in the middle of the Drygalski Trough in order to characterize the spatial and temporal variability of CDW inflow onto the shelf. Our data span from 2004 to the beginning of 2014.In the Drygalski Trough, the CDW enters as a 150m thick layer between 250 and 400m, and moves upward towards the south. At the mooring location, about 50km from the shelf break, two main CDW cores can be observed: one on the east side of the trough spreading along the west slope of Mawson Bank from about 200m to the bottom and the other one in the central-west side from 200m to about 350m depth.A signature of this lighter and relatively warm water is detected by the instruments on the mooring at bottom of the Drygalski Trough. High frequency periodic CDW intrusion at the bottom of the trough is related to the diurnal and spring/neap tidal cycles.At lower frequency, a seasonal variability of the CDW intrusion is noticed. A strong inflow of CDW is observed every year at the end of December, while the CDW inflow is at its seasonal minimum during the beginning of the austral fall. In addition an interannual variability is also evident. A change of the CDW intrusion before and after 2010 is observed.