Fig. 7: Clear seasonal cycle of SGT basal melting.
From: Strong ice-ocean interaction beneath Shirase Glacier Tongue in East Antarctica
a Monthly mean basal melt flux index at 300 dbar of Sta.P2 near the ice front (brown, see also Fig. 6c) and monthly mean squared alongshore (southwestward) wind speed averaged for 1979–2017 at the northeast continental slope (blue, equivalent to wind stress). Average of wind speed at two locations (red squares in Fig. 1a) are used here as the representative wind field on the northeast slope region of LHB. b Across-trough vertical section of simulated climatology of temperature (color) and northward current velocity (broken contours represent southward current velocity) in January (averaged for 2006–2017, results from the simulation without fast ice: NOFI case, see Methods). Each color of dot denotes observed temperature in January 2017 (see also Fig. 2d). Green contours indicate σθ = 27.4, 27.5 and 27.6 kg m−3. c Simulated seasonal cycle of SGT basal melt rate with a range of one standard deviation (black line, right axis) and water mass flowing into the cavity (boxes, left axis) across the SGT ice front, by the coupled ocean–sea ice–ice shelf model. Color of boxes denote temperature (oC). The volume flux is integrated every 0.02 kg m−3, and horizontal yellow and green lines with dot on each month represent σθ = 27.4 and 27.5 kg m−3, respectively. Time series of ApRES-derived basal melt rate (from February 2018 to January 2019 for 354 days, see Methods) after applying a 36-h low-pass filter is also superimposed (red line, right axis).
