Ross Ice Shelf Cavity Ocean Data
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
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2017-12-01T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
- https://doi.org/10.17882/74128
- Presentation form
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact - Custodian, Owner, etc
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Role Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Author Stevens, Craig. craig.stevens@niwa.co.nz Co-author Brewer, Mike. mike.brewer@niwa.co.nz Co-author Grant, Brett. grant.brett@niwa.co.nz Publisher SEANOE
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
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- Oceans
Extent
![](https://antcat.antarcticanz.govt.nz/geonetwork/srv/api/regions/geom.png?geomsrs=EPSG:4326&geom=POLYGON((174.4%20-80.66,174.4%20-80.64,174.2%20-80.64,174.2%20-80.66,174.4%20-80.66)))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2017-01-01 2018-01-01
- Keywords
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- CURRENT METER
- HYDROGRAPHY
- MICROSTRUCTURE PROFILE
- HWD2
- K061A
- GCMD Earth Science and Earth Science Services Keywords
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- CONDUCTIVITY
- OCEAN TEMPERATURE
- OCEAN SALINITY
- OCEAN TEMPERATURE PROFILES
- GCMD Platform/Sources Keywords
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- Ice Shelf
- GCMD Locations Keywords
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- ROSS SEA
- ANTARCTICA
- Resource constraints
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Legal constraints Access constraints Use constraints Constraint application scope This data set conforms to the CC BY Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License License Dataset
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
Transfer options
- Online resource
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Name Linkage (URL) Protocol Function Description Seanoe https://data-marineinsitu.ifremer.fr/glo_multiparameter_nrt/history/CT/GL_PR_CT_EXEI0031.nc WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download Download
- Metadata constraints
-
Legal constraints Access constraints Use constraints Constraint application scope This data set conforms to the CC BY Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License License Metadata
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
- urn:uuid/ec3ea6f7-93ec-479e-934a-5db834f05646
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- anyValidURI
- Metadata Contact
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Role Organisation Individual Electronic mail address Point of contact National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) craig.stevens@niwa.co.nz
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
Name Linkage (URL) Protocol Function Description https://www.seanoe.org/data/00629/74128/ Complete Metadata
- Date info (Revision)
- 2024-07-17T05:19:09.462Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2023-07-07T09:20:50
Metadata standard
- Format name
- ISO 19115-1
- Edition
- 2018