Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

The Antarctic shelf seas are at present receiving increasing amounts of freshwater from the melting of the Antarctic Ice Sheet and its fringing ice shelves. In response, the surface ocean salinity in this region has declined. The talk will investigate the effects of the freshwater input on regional sea level, using satellite measurements of sea surface height (for months with no sea-ice cover) and a global ocean circulation model. It is found that from 1992 to 2011, sea-level rise along the Antarctic coast is at least 2 ± 0.8 mm yr−1 greater than the regional mean for the Southern Ocean. Further, on the basis of the model simulations, we conclude that this sea-level rise is almost entirely related to steric adjustment, rather than changes in local ocean mass, with a halosteric rise in the upper ocean and thermosteric contributions at depth.