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<p>Antarctic icebergs, as a moving source of freshwater while drifting in the Southern Ocean, play a critical role in modulating ocean circulation and sea ice dynamics, especially in light of recent increases in Antarctic ice discharge. Many current ocean and climate models, however, misrepresent Antarctic iceberg melt by assuming it is released along the coast, largely due to the lack of comprehensive assessments that quantify the associated biases and capture the full impacts of this assumption on sea ice and ocean dynamics. This study advances previous work by isolating and quantifying the impacts of iceberg meltwater distribution on the Southern Ocean through the implementation of a more realistic representation of iceberg melt pattern into a global ocean–sea ice model. Compared to traditional coastal-release schemes, the more realistic drifting distribution leads to fresher surface waters, enhanced stratification, and weakened vertical mixing, which reduce upward heat flux, warm the subsurface, and promote the formation of sea ice and Antarctic Bottom Water. Importantly, incorporating the more realistic iceberg meltwater distribution reduces model biases in temperature and salinity climatology by ~ 30% in the high-latitude Southern Ocean. These findings provide quantitative evidence that neglecting the spatial spread of iceberg melt can introduce systematic biases in ocean and climate models.</p>

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The response of the Southern ocean to Climatological iceberg freshwater forcing

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年11月10日

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  • Jingwei Zhang,
  • Xuebin Zhang,
  • Matt A. King,
  • Kewei Lyu

摘要

Antarctic icebergs, as a moving source of freshwater while drifting in the Southern Ocean, play a critical role in modulating ocean circulation and sea ice dynamics, especially in light of recent increases in Antarctic ice discharge. Many current ocean and climate models, however, misrepresent Antarctic iceberg melt by assuming it is released along the coast, largely due to the lack of comprehensive assessments that quantify the associated biases and capture the full impacts of this assumption on sea ice and ocean dynamics. This study advances previous work by isolating and quantifying the impacts of iceberg meltwater distribution on the Southern Ocean through the implementation of a more realistic representation of iceberg melt pattern into a global ocean–sea ice model. Compared to traditional coastal-release schemes, the more realistic drifting distribution leads to fresher surface waters, enhanced stratification, and weakened vertical mixing, which reduce upward heat flux, warm the subsurface, and promote the formation of sea ice and Antarctic Bottom Water. Importantly, incorporating the more realistic iceberg meltwater distribution reduces model biases in temperature and salinity climatology by ~ 30% in the high-latitude Southern Ocean. These findings provide quantitative evidence that neglecting the spatial spread of iceberg melt can introduce systematic biases in ocean and climate models.