The sudden ocean warming and its potential influences on early-frozen landfast ice in the Prydz Bay, East Antarctica

Abstract

The ocean conditions beneath the ice cover play a key role in understanding the sea ice mass balance in the polar regions. An integrated high-frequency ice-ocean observation system, including Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, Conductivity-Temperature-Depth Sensor, and Sea Ice Mass Balance Array (SIMBA), was deployed in the landfast ice region close to the Chinese Zhongshan Station in Antarctica. A sudden ocean warming of 0.14°C (p < 0.01) was observed beneath early-frozen landfast ice, from (−1.60 ± 0.03)°C during April 16–19 to (−1.46 ± 0.07)°C during April 20–23, 2021, which is the only significant warming event in the nearly 8-month records. The sudden ocean warming brought a double rise in oceanic heat flux, from (21.7 ± 11.1) W/m² during April 16–19 to (44.8 ± 21.3) W/m² during April 20–23, 2021, which shifted the original growth phase at the ice bottom, leading to a 2 cm melting, as shown from SIMBA and borehole observations. Simultaneously, the slowdown of ice bottom freezing decreased salt rejection, and the daily trend of observed ocean salinity changed from +0.02 d⁻¹ during April 16–19, 2021 to +0.003 d⁻¹ during April 20–23, 2021. The potential reasons are increased air temperature due to the transit cyclones and the weakened vertical ocean mixing due to the tide phase transformation from semi-diurnal to diurnal. The high-frequency observations within the ice-ocean boundary layer enhance the comprehensive investigation of the ocean’s influence on ice evolution at a daily scale.