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Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)

node · earth · Southern Ocean and the abyssal basins of all three oceans

The densest water in the world ocean, and the one that fills the deepest basins of all three of them. It forms on Antarctic continental shelves where sea ice grows and rejects brine into water already near the freezing point; the resulting shelf water spills down the slope and spreads north along the bottom. There are four main production regions — the Weddell Sea, which is the largest, the Ross Sea, the Adélie Coast and Cape Darnley. Observations and models both indicate it is in retreat: Weddell Sea Bottom Water volume has fallen by around 30 per cent since 1992, and modelling work published in 2023 projects a substantial slowdown of the abyssal overturning cell driven by Antarctic meltwater freshening the shelf water at source.

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Assembled narrative · 1

Assembled from 26 blocks · 1 evidence · 48 related

  1. Story
  2. The densest water in the world ocean, and the one that fills the deepest basins of all three of them. It forms on Antarctic continental shelves where sea ice grows and rejects brine into water already near the freezing point; the resulting shelf water spills down the slope and spreads north along the bottom. There are four main production regions — the Weddell Sea, which is the largest, the Ross Sea, the Adélie Coast and Cape Darnley. Observations and models both indicate it is in retreat: Weddell Sea Bottom Water volume has fallen by around 30 per cent since 1992, and modelling work published in 2023 projects a substantial slowdown of the abyssal overturning cell driven by Antarctic meltwater freshening the shelf water at source.
  3. Knowledge
  4. Thermohaline Circulation
  5. Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)
  6. Weddell Sea
  7. Connections
  8. Polynya
  9. North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW)
  10. Weddell Sea
  11. Thermohaline Circulation
  12. Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell
  13. Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)
  14. Southern Ocean
  15. Antarctic meltwater is projected to slow the abyssal cell
  16. Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)
  17. Coastal and Equatorial Upwelling
  18. Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW)
  19. Southern Ocean
  20. Argo Profiling Float Array
  21. Wallace Broecker
  22. The great ocean conveyor is drawn
  23. The Argo design array is completed
  24. IPCC AR6 assesses AMOC decline as very likely and collapse as unlikely this century
  25. Evidence
  26. Antarctic meltwater freshening shelf waters is projected to drive a substantial slowdown and warming of the abyssal overturning cell fed by Antarctic Bottom Water. Associated observational figures quoted here — an approximately 30 per cent decline in Weddell Sea Bottom Water volume since 1992 and a greater than 40 per cent decline in shelf sea-ice formation rate — come from adjacent studies summarised alongside it, not from this paper.
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/atlas?object=WATERMASS_ANTARCTIC_BOTTOM_WATER&experience=WATERMASS_ANTARCTIC_BOTTOM_WATER