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Researchers now know why the Maud Rise polynya in Antarctica grew in 2016 and 2017 to become as big as Switzerland from being barely visible at all. The image shows a data image of the Maud Rise polynya and concentration of its surrounding sea ice. Credit: Birte Gülk
The team of researchers from the University of Southampton, the University of Gothenburg, and the University of California San Diego studied the Maud Rise polynya — named after the submerged mountain-like feature in the Weddell Sea, over which it grows. In coastal areas, openings in the sea ice occur every year. Here, strong coastal winds blow off the continent and push the ice away, exposing the seawater below. It is much rarer for these polynyas to form in sea ice over the open ocean, hundreds of kilometers away from the coast where the seas are thousands of meters deep.
During 2016 and 2017, the large circular ocean current around the Weddell Sea became stronger. One of the consequences of this is that the deep layer of warm, salty water rises, making it easier for salt and heat to mix vertically into the surface water.Fabien Roquet, a Professor in Physical Oceanography at the University of Gothenburg and co-author of the research, said: “This upwelling helps to explain how the sea ice might melt.
“Ekman transport was the essential missing ingredient that was necessary to increase the balance of salt and sustain the mixing of salt and heat towards the surface water,” says co-author Professor Alberto Naveira Garabato, also from the University of Southampton.
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