The influence of freshwater input in the SOFIA simulations on the upper cell of the global MOC

Due to rising global air and sea temperatures, the Antarctic ice shelves and sheet is expected to melt more rapidly in the future, resulting in an increasing freshwater input into the Southern Ocean. The additional freshwater input could affect the MOC (Meridional Overturing Circulation), which extends over the oceans and distributes heat, carbon, and biogeochemical components globally. The majority of the global coupled climate models have fixed ice sheets, so the missing ice dynamics of the Antarctic ice sheet represent a key uncertainty in their future projections. In this study we investigate how additional freshwater input from the Antarctic ice sheet affects the upper cell of the global MOC.

For this purpose, we analyze output from the Southern Ocean Freshwater Input from Antarctica (SOFIA) initiative to investigate the change in the upper cell of the MOC. This analysis is carried out with regard to different freshwater inputs and different models based on the calculation of the stream function, intending to gain a better understanding of the changing of the upper cell MOC in response to Antarctic meltwater.