The response of the Southern Ocean and Antarctic sea ice to freshwater from ice shelves in an Earth System Model

Journal of Climate (2016)

The possibility that recent Antarctic sea ice expansion resulted from an increase in freshwater reaching the Southern Ocean is investigated here.

Two sets of experiments were conducted from 1980 to 2013 in CESM1(CAM5), artificially distributing freshwater either at the ocean surface or at the ice shelf fronts at depth. An anomalous reduction in vertical advection of heat into the surface mixed layer resulted in sea surface cooling at high southern latitudes and an associated increase in sea ice area.

Neither enhancing the freshwater input nor deepening the freshwater injection had any significant effect on sea ice area magnitude or trend.