Arzeno
Isabella B.
Arzeno
Isabella B.
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ArticleOcean variability contributing to basal melt rate near the ice front of Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica(John Wiley & Sons, 2014-07-09) Arzeno, Isabella B. ; Beardsley, Robert C. ; Limeburner, Richard ; Owens, W. Brechner ; Padman, Laurie ; Springer, Scott R. ; Stewart, Craig L. ; Williams, Michael J. M.Basal melting of ice shelves is an important, but poorly understood, cause of Antarctic ice sheet mass loss and freshwater production. We use data from two moorings deployed through Ross Ice Shelf, ∼6 and ∼16 km south of the ice front east of Ross Island, and numerical models to show how the basal melting rate near the ice front depends on sub-ice-shelf ocean variability. The moorings measured water velocity, conductivity, and temperature for ∼2 months starting in late November 2010. About half of the current velocity variance was due to tides, predominantly diurnal components, with the remainder due to subtidal oscillations with periods of a few days. Subtidal variability was dominated by barotropic currents that were large until mid-December and significantly reduced afterward. Subtidal currents were correlated between moorings but uncorrelated with local winds, suggesting the presence of waves or eddies that may be associated with the abrupt change in water column thickness and strong hydrographic gradients at the ice front. Estimated melt rate was ∼1.2 ± 0.5 m a−1 at each site during the deployment period, consistent with measured trends in ice surface elevation from GPS time series. The models predicted similar annual-averaged melt rates with a strong annual cycle related to seasonal provision of warm water to the ice base. These results show that accurately modeling the high spatial and temporal ocean variability close to the ice-shelf front is critical to predicting time-dependent and mean values of meltwater production and ice-shelf thinning.
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ArticleNorthern Arabian Sea Circulation-Autonomous Research (NASCar) : a research initiative based on autonomous sensors(Oceanography Society, 2017-06) Centurioni, Luca R. ; Hormann, Verena ; Talley, Lynne D. ; Arzeno, Isabella B. ; Beal, Lisa M. ; Caruso, Michael J. ; Conry, Patrick ; Echols, Rosalind ; Fernando, Harindra J. S. ; Giddings, Sarah N. ; Gordon, Arnold L. ; Graber, Hans C. ; Harcourt, Ramsey R. ; Jayne, Steven R. ; Jensen, Tommy G. ; Lee, Craig M. ; Lermusiaux, Pierre F. J. ; L’Hegaret, Pierre ; Lucas, Andrew J. ; Mahadevan, Amala ; McClean, Julie L. ; Pawlak, Geno ; Rainville, Luc ; Riser, Stephen C. ; Seo, Hyodae ; Shcherbina, Andrey Y. ; Skyllingstad, Eric D. ; Sprintall, Janet ; Subrahmanyam, Bulusu ; Terrill, Eric ; Todd, Robert E. ; Trott, Corinne ; Ulloa, Hugo N. ; Wang, HeThe Arabian Sea circulation is forced by strong monsoonal winds and is characterized by vigorous seasonally reversing currents, extreme differences in sea surface salinity, localized substantial upwelling, and widespread submesoscale thermohaline structures. Its complicated sea surface temperature patterns are important for the onset and evolution of the Asian monsoon. This article describes a program that aims to elucidate the role of upper-ocean processes and atmospheric feedbacks in setting the sea surface temperature properties of the region. The wide range of spatial and temporal scales and the difficulty of accessing much of the region with ships due to piracy motivated a novel approach based on state-of-the-art autonomous ocean sensors and platforms. The extensive data set that is being collected, combined with numerical models and remote sensing data, confirms the role of planetary waves in the reversal of the Somali Current system. These data also document the fast response of the upper equatorial ocean to monsoon winds through changes in temperature and salinity and the connectivity of the surface currents across the northern Indian Ocean. New observations of thermohaline interleaving structures and mixing in setting the surface temperature properties of the northern Arabian Sea are also discussed.