Here we provide data from the Ross Ice Shelf ocean cavity. The HWD2 Camp was established in October of 2017 at (-80 39.497, 174 27.678) where the ice is moving seaward at around ~600 m a-1 and is sourced from the Transantarctic Mountains. Profiling Instruments - Profiling was primarily conducted with an RBR Concerto CTD (conductivity-temperature depth) profiling instrument, and this was cross-calibrated against irregular profiles with an RBR Duet (pressure and temperature only), a SBE37 MicroCat CTD as well as moored SBE37 MicroCat CTDs. The RBR unit is small and has suitable sensor capability (temperature and conductivity accuracies of ±0.002°C and ±0.003 mS cm-1). Its conductivity cell design is not prone to fouling by ice crystals, making it ideal for work in the sometimes crystal-laden borehole conditions. We were inconsistent in how we mounted the CTD on its protective frame and this appeared to make small difference in the conductivity signal (resulting in an ~0.03 psu variation). This was post-corrected based on the essentially invariant mooring data from the lower water column as well as SBE37 cross-calibration profile data. Because of the potential for sediment contamination of the sensors, the profiles were mostly conservative in their proximity to the sea floor. On several occasions, profiles were conducted all the way to the sea floor. The temperature and salinity are presented in EOS-80 in order to compare with available data. Eighty-three profiles are provided here (ctd_HWD2_*.dat). In addition, limited microstructure profiling was conducted to provide insight into some of the mixing details. The profiles were conducted by lowering the instrument to the ice base then commencing a sequence of three up-down “yo-yos” before returning to the surface and downloading. A data segment is included here (VMP_HWD2.dat). There were some challenges registering the vertical coordinate for the profiles. The melting of the borehole generates a trapped pool of relatively fresh water. The interface between this and the ocean should be near the base of the hole or a little higher – with seawater intrusion. However, there were some instances where the interface was at a higher pressure (i.e. apparently in the open water column). The best explanation for this is that the water in the borehole is not at static equilibrium for some period after initial melting. We use 34.3 psu as a cut-off, in addition to a pressure criterion to identify the top of the useful oceanic profile. It is also not inconceivable that water was being ejected from the hole, but it is unlikely that this would have impacted in the consistent observed pattern. Instrumented Mooring - The mooring instruments at HWD2-A comprised 5 Nortek Aquadopp single point current meters in titanium housings reporting to the surface (30-minute interval, Table SI-Three) via an inductive modem to a Sound-9 data logger and Iridium transmitter. The current meter measurements were corrected to account for the 138° magnetic declination offset (i.e. the south magnetic pole is to the north-west of the field site). Five files are provided here (HWD2_Init_rcm*.dat4). Stevens Craig, Hulbe Christina, Brewer Mike, Stewart Craig, Robinson Natalie, Ohneiser Christian, Jendersie Stefan (2020). Ocean mixing and heat transport processes observed under the Ross Ice Shelf control its basal melting. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117 (29), 16799-16804. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910760117

Full-depth CTD profiles taken on along-sound and cross-sound transects of McMurdo Sound. Eleven stations with six independent sites were visited. Potential temperature (theta) (measured); Units: °C; Observation Type: in situ; Sampling Instrument: CTD - specific model; Sampling and Analyzing Method: SBE19+ CTD profiler SALINITY (measured); Units: psu; Observation Type: in situ; Sampling Instrument: CTD - specific model; Sampling and Analyzing Method: SBE19+ CTD profiler PRESSURE - WATER [HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE] (measured); Units: dbar; Observation Type: in situ; Sampling Instrument: CTD - specific model; Sampling and Analyzing Method: SBE19+ CTD profiler GET DATA: https://data.noaa.gov/onestop/collections/details/293bf93a-9d10-42df-b468-27fc726b2330

Ocean–atmosphere–sea ice interactions are key to understanding the future of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent. Regional coupled climate–sea ice–ocean models have been developed for several polar regions; however the conservation of heat and mass fluxes between coupled models is often overlooked due to computational difficulties. At regional scale, the non-conservation of water and energy can lead to model drift over multi-year model simulations. Here we present P-SKRIPS version 1, a new version of the SKRIPS coupled model setup for the Ross Sea region. Our development includes a full conservation of heat and mass fluxes transferred between the climate (PWRF) and sea ice–ocean (MITgcm) models. We examine open water, sea ice cover, and ice sheet interfaces. We show the evidence of the flux conservation in the results of a 1-month-long summer and 1-month-long winter test experiment. P-SKRIPS v.1 shows the implications of conserving heat flux over the Terra Nova Bay and Ross Sea polynyas in August 2016, eliminating the mismatch between total flux calculation in PWRF and MITgcm up to 922 W m−2. RELATED PUBLICATION: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3355-2023 GET DATA: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7739059

Ocean–atmosphere–sea ice interactions are key to understanding the future of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic continent. Regional coupled climate–sea ice–ocean models have been developed for several polar regions; however the conservation of heat and mass fluxes between coupled models is often overlooked due to computational difficulties. At regional scale, the non-conservation of water and energy can lead to model drift over multi-year model simulations. Here we present P-SKRIPS version 1, a new version of the SKRIPS coupled model setup for the Ross Sea region. Our development includes a full conservation of heat and mass fluxes transferred between the climate (PWRF) and sea ice–ocean (MITgcm) models. We examine open water, sea ice cover, and ice sheet interfaces. We show the evidence of the flux conservation in the results of a 1-month-long summer and 1-month-long winter test experiment. P-SKRIPS v.1 shows the implications of conserving heat flux over the Terra Nova Bay and Ross Sea polynyas in August 2016, eliminating the mismatch between total flux calculation in PWRF and MITgcm up to 922 W m−2. RELATED PUBLICATION: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3355-2023 GET DATA: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7739062

Here we present physico-chemical data collected during two research cruises conducted to and across the Ross Sea, Antarctica in the summer of 2018 (February-March) and 2019 (January-February). The dataset includes measurements of temperature, salinity, oxygen, par and transmissivity obtained with a Sea-Bird Electronics (SBE) 911plus CTD. The CTD sensor was configured with SBE 3plus, SBE 4, and SBE 43 dual sensors for the parameters above, in addition to a seapoint fluorescence sensor, and a photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) sensor (Biospherical Instruments QCP‐2300L‐HP). These data were used to provide oceanographic context to DNA metabarcoding analysis of 18S rRNA V4 region that was carried out on DNA samples collected in parallel to nutrient and chlorophyll-a samples. Fastq samples from DNA metabarcoding analysis and the associated metadata (including nutrients, Chlorophyll-a, and size-fractionated chlorophyll-a) were deposited to GenBank under project numbers PRJNA756172 (2018 cruise) and PRJNA974160 (2019 cruise). The study resulting from this analysis has been submitted to Limnology and Oceanography. RELATED PUBLICATION: Cristi, A., Law, C.S., Pinkerton, M., Lopes dos Santos, A., Safi, K. and Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, A. (2024). Environmental driving forces and phytoplankton diversity across the Ross Sea region during a summer–autumn transition. Limnol Oceanogr. https://doi.org/10.1002/lno.12526

Global mean sea level has risen at an accelerating rate in the last decade and will continue to rise for centuries. The Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica is a critical region for present and future ice loss, however most studies consider only a worst-case future for the region. Here we use ice sheet model sensitivity experiments to investigate the centennial scale implications of short-term periods of enhanced ocean driven sub-ice shelf melting on ice loss and assess what future reduction in melting is necessary to mitigate ice stream retreat and offset global sea level rise. Our findings reveal that restoring elevated melt rates to present-day levels within 100 years causes rates of ice discharge to immediately decline, thereby limiting the overall sea level contribution from the region. However, while ice stream re-advance and slowed ice discharge is possible with reduced basal melting, a centennial scale increase in accumulation must occur to offset the extensive ice loss. Further details are provided at: Alevropoulos-Borrill, A., Golledge, N.R., Cornford, S.L. et al. Sustained ocean cooling insufficient to reverse sea level rise from Antarctica. Commun Earth Environ 5, 150 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01297-8 GET DATA: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/UYMA6

Contained in this folder are the raw and processed data files for data collected with the underwater robot Icefin in the ocean cavity beneath Ross Ice Shelf, near the grounding line of Kamb Ice Stream. Most of these data are located within a basal crevasse. They were collected in December 2019 as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Antarctic Science Platform and Victoria University of Wellington Hot Water Drilling initiative, and the NASA RISEUP grant (NNX16AL07G, PI B. E. Schmidt). The code that converted raw data files to processed can be found at https://zenodo.org/record/8338529. Direct questions to Peter Washam at pwasham@cornell.edu. RELATED PUBLICATION: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adi7638 GET DATA: https://doi.org/10.15784/601733

In collaboration between Korea Polar Research Institute and NIWA, an oceanographic mooring was deployed close to the bottom depth near the Drygalski Ice Tongue (lat:-75.275700, lon:164.067300) on 9 March 2018 as a part of the ANA08C research cruise, and it was recovered on 3 January 2019. To monitor physical properties (Temperature, Salinity, Current) of deep water near the Drygalski Ice Tongue. GET DATA: https://kpdc.kopri.re.kr/search/9826749c-376a-4751-8812-702cec76c4c0

In collaboration between Korea Polar Research Institute and NIWA, an oceanographic mooring was deployed to the North of the Drygalski Ice Tongue (lat:-75.360767, lon:164.746467) on 9 February 2017 as a part of the ANA07C research cruise, and it was recovered on 5 March 2018. To monitor physical properties (Temperature, Salinity, Current) of ocean water in the north of the Drygalski Ice Tongue. GET DATA: https://kpdc.kopri.re.kr/search/c266365d-4846-4242-952b-75102a53110b

In collaboration between the Korea Polar Research Institute and NIWA, an oceanographic mooring was deployed close to the bottom depth near the Drygalski Ice Tongue (lat:-75.275700, lon:164.067300) on 9 March 2018 as a part of the ANA08C research cruise, and it was recovered on 3 January 2019 To monitor physical properties(Temperature, Salinity, Current) of deep water near the Drygalski Ice Tongue. To monitor physical properties (Temperature, Salinity, Current) of deep water near the Drygalski Ice Tongue. GET DATA: https://kpdc.kopri.re.kr/search/9826749c-376a-4751-8812-702cec76c4c0