Phys.org  November 8, 2024 Solar-warmed surface waters subduct beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves because of wind forcing, but this process is poorly observed and its interannual variability is yet to be assessed. Researchers in the UK observed a 50-meter-thick intrusion of warm surface water immediately beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. Temperature in the uppermost 5 meters decreased toward the ice base in near-perfect agreement with an exponential fit, consistent with the loss of heat to the overlying ice. They found that Ekman forcing drove a heat transport into the cavity sufficient to contribute considerably to near-front melting; this transport increased over […]