Open AccessWintertime dynamics of the Terra Nova Bay polynya
Author(s) -
Van Woert Michael L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/1999jc900003
Subject(s) - katabatic wind , bay , climatology , longwave , environmental science , forcing (mathematics) , ice shelf , submarine pipeline , nova (rocket) , sea ice , geology , oceanography , cryosphere , radiative transfer , aeronautics , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics
Three variants of a one‐dimensional coastal polynya model, forced by data from a nearby automatic weather station, are used to examine wintertime ice concentration fluctuations in a coastal polynya at Terra Nova Bay, Antarctica. It has long been believed that the Terra Nova Bay polynya opens in response to strong offshore katabatic wind forcing. This study shows that the sensible and longwave heat fluxes share equally in controlling polynya extent fluctuations, and together, these two terms in the energy budget can explain up to ∼50% of the observed variance in open water fraction. Moreover, this study shows that the wind speed becomes important to the polynya dynamics through amplification of the longwave flux. Finally, this study suggests that local katabatic winds at Terra Nova Bay combined with regional ice conditions set up by winds blowing across the Ross Ice Shelf control the fluctuations in Terra Nova Bay polynya extent.