Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength

Tiago S. Dotto; Karen Heywood; Rob Hall; Ted Scambos; Yixi Zheng; Yoshihiro Nakayama; Shuntaro Hyogo; Tasha Snow; Anna K. Wåhlin; Christian Wild; Martin Truffer; Atsuhiro Muto; Karen Alley; Lars Boehme; Guilherme A. Bortolotto; Scott W. Tyler; Erin Pettit

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5

Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength

Tiago S. Dotto, Karen Heywood, Rob Hall, Ted Scambos, Yixi Zheng, Yoshihiro Nakayama, Shuntaro Hyogo, Tasha Snow, Anna K. Wåhlin, Christian Wild, Martin Truffer, Atsuhiro Muto, Karen Alley, Lars Boehme, Guilherme A. Bortolotto, Scott W. Tyler, Erin Pettit

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Abstract

West Antarctic ice-shelf thinning is primarily caused by ocean-driven basal melting. Here we assess ocean variability below Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) and reveal the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice. Measurements obtained from two sub-ice-shelf moorings, spanning January 2020 to March 2021, show warming of the ice-shelf cavity and an increase in meltwater fraction of the upper sub-ice layer. Combined with ocean modelling results, our observations suggest that meltwater from Pine Island Ice Shelf feeds into the TEIS cavity, adding to horizontal heat transport there. We propose that a weakening of the Pine Island Bay gyre caused by prolonged sea-ice cover from April 2020 to March 2021 allowed meltwater-enriched waters to enter the TEIS cavity, which increased the temperature of the upper layer. Our study highlights the sensitivity of ocean circulation beneath ice shelves to local atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean forcing in neighbouring open oceans.

Original language	English
Article number	7840
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5
Publication status	Published - 21 Dec 2022

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s41467-022-35499-5Final published version, 5.31 MBLicence: CC BY

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S. Dotto, T., Heywood, K., Hall, R., Scambos, T., Zheng, Y., Nakayama, Y., Hyogo, S., Snow, T., Wåhlin, A. K., Wild, C., Truffer, M., Muto, A., Alley, K., Boehme, L., Bortolotto, G. A., Tyler, S. W., & Pettit, E. (2022). Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength. Nature Communications, 13, [7840]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5

@article{928a855d328d4013b582713fe5784dcd,

title = "Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength",

abstract = "West Antarctic ice-shelf thinning is primarily caused by ocean-driven basal melting. Here we assess ocean variability below Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) and reveal the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice. Measurements obtained from two sub-ice-shelf moorings, spanning January 2020 to March 2021, show warming of the ice-shelf cavity and an increase in meltwater fraction of the upper sub-ice layer. Combined with ocean modelling results, our observations suggest that meltwater from Pine Island Ice Shelf feeds into the TEIS cavity, adding to horizontal heat transport there. We propose that a weakening of the Pine Island Bay gyre caused by prolonged sea-ice cover from April 2020 to March 2021 allowed meltwater-enriched waters to enter the TEIS cavity, which increased the temperature of the upper layer. Our study highlights the sensitivity of ocean circulation beneath ice shelves to local atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean forcing in neighbouring open oceans.",

author = "{S. Dotto}, Tiago and Karen Heywood and Rob Hall and Ted Scambos and Yixi Zheng and Yoshihiro Nakayama and Shuntaro Hyogo and Tasha Snow and W{\aa}hlin, {Anna K.} and Christian Wild and Martin Truffer and Atsuhiro Muto and Karen Alley and Lars Boehme and Bortolotto, {Guilherme A.} and Tyler, {Scott W.} and Erin Pettit",

note = "Author acknowledgements: We thank the scientists, technicians, and ship crew involved in the installation of the AMIGOS moorings and ocean data collection. This work is from the TARSAN project, a component of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC; https://thwaitesglacier.org/ ). T.A.S., T.S., C.W., M.T., A.M., K.E.A., S.W.T., and E.P. thank the support from National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant 1929991. T.S.D., K.J.H., R.A.H., and A.K.W. thank the support from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Grant NE/S006419/1. L.B. and G.A.B. thank support from NERC Grant NE/S006591/1. Y.Z. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council, the University of East Anglia, and the European Research Council (under H2020-EU.1.1.; Grant 741120). Y.N. received support from the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (19K23447, 21K13989) of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. S.H. was supported by JST, the establishment of university fellowships towards the creation of science and technology innovation (Grant JPMJFS2101). Logistics were provided by NSF-U.S. Antarctic Program and NERC-British Antarctic Survey. ITGC Contribution No. ITGC-062.",

year = "2022",

month = dec,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5",

language = "English",

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journal = "Nature Communications",

issn = "2041-1723",

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S. Dotto, T, Heywood, K , Hall, R, Scambos, T, Zheng, Y, Nakayama, Y, Hyogo, S, Snow, T, Wåhlin, AK, Wild, C, Truffer, M, Muto, A, Alley, K, Boehme, L, Bortolotto, GA, Tyler, SW & Pettit, E 2022, 'Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength', Nature Communications, vol. 13, 7840. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength

AU - S. Dotto, Tiago

AU - Heywood, Karen

AU - Hall, Rob

AU - Scambos, Ted

AU - Zheng, Yixi

AU - Nakayama, Yoshihiro

AU - Hyogo, Shuntaro

AU - Snow, Tasha

AU - Wåhlin, Anna K.

AU - Wild, Christian

AU - Truffer, Martin

AU - Muto, Atsuhiro

AU - Alley, Karen

AU - Boehme, Lars

AU - Bortolotto, Guilherme A.

AU - Tyler, Scott W.

AU - Pettit, Erin

N1 - Author acknowledgements: We thank the scientists, technicians, and ship crew involved in the installation of the AMIGOS moorings and ocean data collection. This work is from the TARSAN project, a component of the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration (ITGC; https://thwaitesglacier.org/ ). T.A.S., T.S., C.W., M.T., A.M., K.E.A., S.W.T., and E.P. thank the support from National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant 1929991. T.S.D., K.J.H., R.A.H., and A.K.W. thank the support from Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Grant NE/S006419/1. L.B. and G.A.B. thank support from NERC Grant NE/S006591/1. Y.Z. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council, the University of East Anglia, and the European Research Council (under H2020-EU.1.1.; Grant 741120). Y.N. received support from the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (19K23447, 21K13989) of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. S.H. was supported by JST, the establishment of university fellowships towards the creation of science and technology innovation (Grant JPMJFS2101). Logistics were provided by NSF-U.S. Antarctic Program and NERC-British Antarctic Survey. ITGC Contribution No. ITGC-062.

PY - 2022/12/21

Y1 - 2022/12/21

N2 - West Antarctic ice-shelf thinning is primarily caused by ocean-driven basal melting. Here we assess ocean variability below Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) and reveal the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice. Measurements obtained from two sub-ice-shelf moorings, spanning January 2020 to March 2021, show warming of the ice-shelf cavity and an increase in meltwater fraction of the upper sub-ice layer. Combined with ocean modelling results, our observations suggest that meltwater from Pine Island Ice Shelf feeds into the TEIS cavity, adding to horizontal heat transport there. We propose that a weakening of the Pine Island Bay gyre caused by prolonged sea-ice cover from April 2020 to March 2021 allowed meltwater-enriched waters to enter the TEIS cavity, which increased the temperature of the upper layer. Our study highlights the sensitivity of ocean circulation beneath ice shelves to local atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean forcing in neighbouring open oceans.

AB - West Antarctic ice-shelf thinning is primarily caused by ocean-driven basal melting. Here we assess ocean variability below Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf (TEIS) and reveal the importance of local ocean circulation and sea-ice. Measurements obtained from two sub-ice-shelf moorings, spanning January 2020 to March 2021, show warming of the ice-shelf cavity and an increase in meltwater fraction of the upper sub-ice layer. Combined with ocean modelling results, our observations suggest that meltwater from Pine Island Ice Shelf feeds into the TEIS cavity, adding to horizontal heat transport there. We propose that a weakening of the Pine Island Bay gyre caused by prolonged sea-ice cover from April 2020 to March 2021 allowed meltwater-enriched waters to enter the TEIS cavity, which increased the temperature of the upper layer. Our study highlights the sensitivity of ocean circulation beneath ice shelves to local atmosphere-sea-ice-ocean forcing in neighbouring open oceans.

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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5

DO - 10.1038/s41467-022-35499-5

M3 - Article

VL - 13

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

M1 - 7840

ER -

Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength

Abstract

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NSFPLR-NERC: Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network (TARSAN). Integrating Atmosphere-Ice-Ocean Processes affecting the Sub-Ice-Shelf Environment.

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Ocean variability beneath Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf driven by the Pine Island Bay Gyre strength

Abstract

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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Projects

NSFPLR-NERC: Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network (TARSAN). Integrating Atmosphere-Ice-Ocean Processes affecting the Sub-Ice-Shelf Environment.

Cite this