Impact of the Eastern Weddell Ice Shelves on water masses in the Eastern Weddell Sea

We use a primitive equation Ocean General Circulation Model to simulate the ocean circulation regime in the Eastern Weddell Sea. The computer model ROMBAX (Revisited Ocean Model based on Bryan And Cox) is an improved version of an earlier ocean model, which has been developed to allow the simulation of the flow regime in ice shelf covered regions. The Eastern Weddell Ice Shelf (EWIS) region is of particular importance because of its narrow continental shelf and its location at the inflow of water masses from the east into the southern Weddell Sea. We have compared the simulated flow pattern and water properties in the EWIS region with the available sparse observations. While the general observed structure of temperature and salinity is reproduced, the model tends to overestimate the on-shore flow of warm deep waters. This discrepancy is not large enough to seriously influence the ice shelf ocean interaction, which is in good agreement with estimates based on field observations. The mean net melt rate is found to be 0.88 m yr(-1) (2.1 mSv) and has a strong seasonal cycle. Sensitivity studies with different ice shelf configurations (no melting, no ice shelf, closed cavity) show strong impacts on the water mass properties in the EWIS region, with up to 0.7 degrees C difference in temperature and 0.05 in salinity relative to the control run. Our results suggest that the EWIS region is of substantial importance to water mass preconditioning and formation in the Weddell Sea, although no deep or bottom water formation occurs in the eastern Weddell Sea directly.