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SUMMARY:Analysis of a rapid sea-ice retreat event in the Bellingshausen Se
 a - Dr John King (British Antarctic Survey)
DTSTART:20110406T130000Z
DTEND:20110406T140000Z
UID:TALK28981@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Scott Hosking
DESCRIPTION:The winter advance of the sea ice edge in the Bellingshausen S
 ea is frequently interrupted by periods of rapid retreat lasting a few day
 s. The frequency and duration of such events strongly controls the locatio
 n of the late winter sea ice edge in this sector of the Antarctic. Since w
 inter ice extent in the Bellingshausen Sea controls winter temperatures in
  the western Antarctic Peninsula – a region that has warmed rapidly in r
 ecent decades – it is important to understand the processes that control
  ice extent in this sector. In this talk I will examine the dynamics and t
 hermodynamics of a retreat event that occurred in May 2001 using data from
  a drifting buoy array together with diagnostics from a kinematic/thermody
 namic ice growth model and a high-resolution (11 km) regional coupled ocea
 n-ice model. During the retreat event\, the ice edge retreated by 250 km o
 ver 13 days in response to strong and persistent northerly winds associate
 d with a quasi-stationary low pressure system. Ice motion in the outer par
 t of the pack was convergent and correlated strongly with local wind forci
 ng\, indicating conditions close to free drift. By contrast\, in the regio
 n closer to the coast\, ice motion was less well correlated with wind forc
 ing and internal ice stresses were significant. Model diagnostics indicate
  that ice thickening resulting from convergence in the outer pack was larg
 ely balanced by basal melting\, which was driven by a large ocean-to-ice h
 eat flux maintained by “stirring” of the ocean mixed layer by the ice-
 ocean stress. The ocean-ice model simulated the characteristics of the ret
 reat event realistically\, providing confidence in the ability of such mod
 els to reproduce ice conditions in this sector. 
LOCATION:British Antarctic Survey\, Room 187
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