Table of Contents

• Coverage
• Dataset Description
  • Methods & Sampling
  • Data Processing Description
• Data Files
• Related Publications
• Parameters
• Project Information
• Funding

Location: Coastal West Antarctic Peninsula

Methodology summary:

Model results are from a 1.5 km horizontal resolution Regional Ocean Modeling System (v3.6) circulation model, including dynamic sea-ice and static ice shelves (including mechanical and thermodynamic interactions between the floating ice shelves and the water underneath), for the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) coastal ocean.  The model simulation covers the period 2006-2012 and is forced by atmospheric output from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System.  The results here are model sea surface height (for the entire simulation) and a surface passive tracer concentration for a temporal subset of the model run (1/25/2009-5/24/2009).  At a given time step during the model integration, a conservative tracer with a default value of 1.0 was placed throughout the entire vertical water column in any grid point shoreward of the model 0.08 m sea surface elevation anomaly (with respect to the long term mean over the model domain) contour along the WAP. This tracer was then allowed to freely advect and diffuse within the model domain based on the modeled circulation.

More details on these data are in Castelao et al. (2021), but the simulation is essentially the same (other than the new passive tracer) as in Graham et al. (2016).

ROMS version used: ROMSv3.6. Information on how to visualize ROMS model output is available at: https://www.myroms.org/wiki/Tools

This dataset includes three sets of data files:

1) NetCDF model output of the simulated sea surface height for the entire model simulation (2006 through 2012) of the West Antarctic Peninsula circulation model.  Each file (WAP_1k_zeta_00*.nc) contains 10 five-day temporal averages of the model SSH (m). See Data File WAP_1k_zeta_00_nc.tar.gz for file access.

2) NetCDF model output of the simulated sea surface height and surface passive tracer concentration for a temporal subset of the model run (1/25/2009 – 5/24/2009).  Each file (WAP_1k_avg_02*.ssh.dye.nc) contains 5 one-day averages of the model SSH (m) and surface passive tracer (dimensionless: 0-1). See Data File WAP_1k_avg_02_ssh_dye_nc.tar.gz for file access.

3) One file (WAP_1k_grid_r36_smooth_v5.nc) that contains the model grid data. See Data File WAP_1k_grid_r36_smooth_v5.nc for file access.

BCO-DMO Data Manager Processed notes:
* Original files submitted through Dropbox had the submitter's name prepended to the files.  Removed the added file name prefix from .nc files.
*  Bundled and compressed the the WAP_1k_zeta_00*.nc files into file Data File WAP_1k_zeta_00_nc.tar.gz and added to Data Files section.
* Bundled and compressed the WAP_1k_avg_02*.ssh.dye.nc files into WAP_1k_avg_02_ssh_dye_nc.tar.gz and added to the Data Files section.
* Added WAP_1k_grid_r36_smooth_v5.nc to Data Files section.

NSF Award Abstract:

The Southern Ocean accounts for a large fraction of the global ocean CO2 uptake. The Southern Ocean is also unique because it encircles the globe, providing pathways for deep, inter-basin exchange. Previous studies have shown that particulate organic carbon (POC; fixed organic matter) seasonally builds up around the productive Antarctic seas before moving off-shore. The project will serve as a step toward better quantifying the export of POC from around the Antarctic Peninsula and better understanding the larger Southern Ocean carbon cycle. The project will promote education by supporting graduate and undergraduate students. New data sets on offshore transport pathways and POC variability will be generated in a consistent and systematic manner, and will be available to the scientific community.

This proposal will examine the offshore export of particulate organic carbon (POC) off the Antarctic Peninsula, from areas of high accumulation near the coast to areas offshore. We hypothesize that both wind-driven surface Ekman transport and transport by nonlinear mesoscale eddies can make significant contributions to the offshore export of POC. Specifically, the project will (1) identify areas of enhanced accumulation of POC off the Antarctic Peninsula; (2) quantify spatial and temporal variability in offshore transport by nonlinear mesoscale eddies and by winds in a surface Ekman layer; and (3) compare the estimates of offshore transport to the POC distribution away from the coast to identify preferred transport pathways or hotspots for offshore export of coastal water and POC off the Peninsula. This study will utilize decade-long satellite observations of POC based on algorithms validated against in situ data, ocean vector winds, eddy kinematic and propagation characteristics based on altimeter data, and results from a high resolution eddy resolving ocean model coupled to a sea ice model. The study will focus on the Antarctic Peninsula during summer, when reduced cloud/sea ice cover when satellite data availability is high.