Laboratory experiments of eddy blocking by Ice shelves

Abstract

Eddies have been identified in mooring records from along the front of the Ronne ice shelf, Antarctica. This is an area where dense High Salinity Shelf Water (HSSW) flows into the cavity beneath the Filchner Ronne Ice Shelf (FRIS). This work uses experiments conducted on a small 1.2 and a large 13 m diameter rotating table considering the effect that an ice shelf has on the propagation of eddies. The paper focuses on the behaviour of eddies in the region of the ice front and it aims to address whether eddies can propagate beyond the ice front into the ice shelf cavity. It is shown that a relatively small change in ice shelf thickness is required to impede the propagation of eddies into the cavity beneath the ice shelf. However, when stratification is present eddies appear to propagate into the ice shelf cavity.