• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.6_1
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• pp.1245-1255
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• 2022

Terra Nova Bay polynya (TNBP) is a representative coastal polynya in East Antarctica, which is formed by strong katabatic winds. As the TNBP is one of the major sea ice factory in East Antarctica and has a great impact on regional ocean circulation and surrounding marine ecosystem, it is very important to analyze its area change and development characteristics. In this study, we detected the TNBP from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical images obtained from April 2007 to April 2022 by visually analyzing the stripes caused by the Langmuir circulation effect and the boundary between the polynya and surrounding sea ice. Then, we analyzed the area change and development characteristics of the TNBP. The TNBP occurred frequently but in a small size during the Antarctic winter (April-July) when strong katabatic winds blow, whereas it developed in a large size in March and November when sea ice thickness is thin. The 12-hour mean wind speed before the satellite observations showed a correlation coefficient of 0.577 with the TNBP area. This represents that wind has a significant effect on the formation of TNBP, and that other environmental factors might also affect its development process. The direction of TNBP expansion was predominantly determined by the wind direction and was partially influenced by the local ocean current. The results of this study suggest that the influences of environmental factors related to wind, sea ice, ocean, and atmosphere should be analyzed in combination to identify the development characteristics of TNBP.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 2022

The Ross Sea, Antarctica plays an important role in the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) which is the densest water mass in global thermohaline circulation. Of the AABW, 25% is formed in the Ross Sea, and sea ice formation at the polynya (ice-free area) developed in front of ice shelves of the Ross Sea is considered as a pivotal mechanism for AABW production. For this reason, monitoring the Ross Sea variations is very important to understand changes of global thermohaline circulation influenced by climate change. In addition, the Ross Sea is also regarded as a natural laboratory in investigating ice-ocean interactions owing to the development of the polynya. In this article, I introduce characteristics of the Ross Sea described in previous observational studies, and investigate variations that have occurred in the Ross Sea in the past and those taking place in the present. Furthermore, based on these observational results, I outline variations or changes that can be anticipated in the Ross Sea in the future, and make an appeal to researchers regarding the importance and necessity of continuous observations in the Ross Sea.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.59-72
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• 1999

Cavitating fluid sea ice model of Plato and Hibler (1992) is applied to the Southern Ocean with an idealized, circular Antarctica. Using climatological atmospheric forcing fields averaged in the zonal direction, we show that oceanic heat flux and ice velocity have major effects on the seasonal change of ice edge, as other studies showed. In our model results, there appears a zone of free drift that contains a polynya zone. Thermodynamic forcing functions make dominant contributions to daily increments of ice thickness and compactness, except the zones of ice edge and polynya. The dominant contributions are also shown in distributions of the temperature on ice surface and several to terms in surface heat balance equation, and are also confirmed by those obtained from the thermodynamic-only model with the different locations of ice edge.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.269-285
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• 2022

The interaction between ocean and ice shelf is a critical physical process in relation to water mass transformations and ice shelf melting/freezing at the ocean-ice interface. However, it remains challenging to thoroughly understand the process due to a lack of observational data with respect to ice shelf cavities. This is the first study to simulate the variability and circulation of water mass both overlying the continental shelf and underneath an ice shelf and an ice tongue in the Terra Nova Bay (TNB), East Antarctica. To explore the properties of water mass and circulation patterns in the TNB and the corresponding effects on sub ice shelf basal melting, we explicitly incorporate the dynamic-thermodynamic processes acting on the ice shelf in the Regional Ocean Modeling System. The simulated water mass formation and circulation in the TNB region agree well with previous studies. The model results show that the TNB circulation is dominated by the geostrophic currents driven by lateral density gradients induced by the releasing of brine or freshwater at the polynya of the TNB. Meanwhile, the circulation dynamics in the cavity under the Nansen Ice shelf (NIS) are different from those in the TNB. The gravity-driven bottom current induced by High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW) formed at the TNB polynya flows towards the grounding line, and the buoyance-driven flow associated with glacial meltwater generated by the HSSW emerges from the cavity along the ice base. Both current systems compose the thermohaline overturning circulation in the NIS cavity. This study estimates the NIS basal melting rate to be 0.98 m/a, which is comparable to the previously observed melt rate. However, the melting rate shows a significant variation in space and time.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.63-77
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• 2019

In order to investigate the behavior and seasonal variability of Mn as one of the bio-essential metals in the Amundsen sea, which is known as the most biologically productive coastal area around the Antartica, seawaters were collected using a clean sampling system for 10 stations (96 ea) in 2014 (ANA04B) and for 12 stations (139 ea) in 2016 (ANA06B) surveys of RV ARAON. Dissolved and particulate Mn concentration varied in the range of 0.15-4.43 nmol/kg and <0.01 to 2.42 nM in 2014 and in the range of 0.25-4.15 nmol/kg and 0.01-2.64 nM in 2016, respectively. From the sectional distribution of dissolved and particulate Mn, it might be suggested that dissolved/particulate Mn was provided from iceberg melting and diffusion/resuspension from sediments, respectively. Although this sea is highly productive, there was little evidence regarding the biological origin of dissolved Mn, but particulate Mn only in sea ice and offshore areas could be explained as originating from organic matters, e.g. phytoplanktons. And it could be suggested that the subsurface maximum of dissolved Mn was formed by isopycnal transport of melting materials from ice wall to offshore. Compared to early (2014) summer, temperature, salinity, biomass, dissolved and particulate Mn in late (2016) summer indicated that temporal variations might be resulted from the reduction of ice melting and mCDW flow, which induced a reduction in resuspension. In addition, in the late summer, particles including biomass were reduced, which brought about a reduction in the removal rate of dissolved Mn.