Sudden, local temperature increase above the continental slope in the southern Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Abstract

Around most of Antarctica, the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) shows a warming trend. At the same time, the thermocline is shoaling, thereby increasing the potential for CDW to enter the shallow continental shelves and ultimately increase basal melt in the ice shelf cavities that line the coast. Similar trends, on the order of 0.05 ∘C and 3 m per decade, have been observed in the Warm Deep Water (WDW), the slightly cooled CDW derivative found at depth in the Weddell Sea. Here, we report on a sudden, local increase in the temperature maximum of the WDW above the continental slope north of the Filchner Trough (74∘ S, 25–40∘ W), a region identified as a hotspot for both Antarctic Bottom Water formation (AABW) and potential changes in the flow of WDW towards the large Filchner–Ronne Ice Shelf.

New conductivity–temperature–depth profiles, obtained in summer 2021, and recent (2017–2021) mooring records show that the temperature of the warm-water core increased by about 0.1 ∘C over the upper part of the slope (700–2750 m depth) compared with historical (1973–2018) measurements. The temperature increase occurred relatively suddenly in late 2019 and was accompanied by an unprecedented (in observations) freshening of the overlying winter water. The AABW descending down the continental slope from Filchner Trough is sourced by dense ice shelf water and consists to a large degree (60 %) of entrained WDW. The observed temperature increase can hence be expected to imprint directly on deep-water properties, increasing the temperature of newly produced bottom water (by up to 0.06 ∘C) and reducing its density.