Solar-warmed surface waters subduct beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves as a result of wind forcing, but this process is poorly observed and its interannual variability is yet to be assessed. We observe a 50-meter-thick intrusion of warm surface water immediately beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. Temperature in the uppermost 5 meters decreases toward the ice base in near-perfect agreement with an exponential fit, consistent with the loss of heat to the overlying ice. Ekman forcing drives a heat transport into the cavity sufficient to contribute considerably to near-front melting; this transport has increased over the past four decades, driven by the increasing heat content of the ice-front polynya. Interannual variability of the heat transport is driven by zonal wind stress. These results provide a benchmark against which model performance may be assessed as we seek to reduce uncertainty around the contribution of basal melting to sea level rise.

中文翻译：

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罗斯冰架锋面区受到海洋表层水的日益融化


由于风力，太阳变暖的表层水下降到南极洲的冰架下方，但这一过程的观测很少，其年际变化性还有待评估。我们观察到罗斯冰架正下方有 50 米厚的温暖地表水侵入。最上层 5 米处的温度向冰底下降，与指数拟合几乎完全一致，与上覆冰的热量损失一致。Ekman 强迫将热传递驱动到型腔中，足以对近前熔化做出相当大的贡献;在过去的四十年里，由于冰缘冰间湖的热含量增加，这种运输有所增加。热传递的年际变化是由纬向风应力驱动的。这些结果提供了一个基准，在我们寻求减少基底融化对海平面上升贡献的不确定性时，可以据此评估模型性能。