| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | Polar Oceanography: Complex Interactions Between The Oceans, Atmosphere, And Cryosphere And Their Effects On Climate |
| Main Convener | Dr. Robin Robertson (University of New South Wales, Australia) |
| Co-convener(s) | Dr. Yu (Sophie) Zhang (Ocean University of China, China) Dr. Xiao-Yi Yang (Xiamen University, China) |
| Session Description | Polar regions play a unique role in climate and are impacted strongly by climate change. The deep waters of the global oceans originate in the polar regions and they form a critical part of the global overturning circulation. Warming is occurring fastest in the Arctic, along the Antarctic Pennisula, and in the Amundsen Sea. The polar regions are a complex environment, where the oceans, atmosphere, and cryosphere interact in multiple ways. As an example, katabatic winds coming off the continent, cool the surface ocean, inducing freezing and brine rejection, at the same time blowing the new ice away, keeping sea ice out of the coastal polynya ,and forming dense, cold, salty water, which is a precursor to Antarctic Bottom Water. Ozone depletion combined with increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may have caused changes of westerlies, resulting in differential warming in the Antarctic. Biological production is high in the coastal polynya, which attracts fish, seals, and whales. There are many other examples of complex interactions in the polar regions, including density driven melting and flow under ice shelves, large convective cells of open ocean polynyas, mixing of water masses generating Antarctic Bottom Water, high biological productivity at the sea ice edge, freshwater transport by sea ice, etc. This session invites abstracts on observational and/or modelling research either within the ocean or between the ocean, atmosphere, sea ice, ice shelves and/or biota in the polar regions. We welcome research that adds insights into the complex interactions between the ocean, atmosphere, and cryosphere in the polar regions. |