Ross Sea Outflow Experiment

Approximately 25% of Antarctic Bottom Water has its origin as dense water exiting the western Ross Sea, but little is known about what controls the release of dense water plumes from the Drygalski Trough. We deployed two moorings on the slope from February, 2018, to January, 2019, to investigate the water properties of the bottom water exiting the region at Cape Adare and the relationship with the seasonal cycle, winds, and tides. Mooring P2 was placed at 1750 metres depth on the slope at Cape Adare at the same location as an earlier deployment of mooring CA1 in the CALM experiment (Gordon et al., 2015). Instruments on P2 were placed at the same depths as CA1 to continue that time series. Mooring P3 was placed on the same isobath on the slope at the mouth of the Drygalski Trough to measure the water properties moving along the slope from the east. Findings from the observations are described in Bowen et al. (2021).