3. Heat Exchange: Qtotal = Qs -(Qb + Qe + Qh)
Freshwater Exchange = Precipitation - Evaporation
Qs, 168 watts/m2
Short wave solar radiation
Qh 24 watts/m2
Qb, 66 watts/m2
long wave terrestial
radiation
Qe, 78 watts/m2
evaporation

5. Heat Flux between the ocean and atmosphere
Heat Exchange: Qtotal = Qs -(Qb + Qe + Qh)

6. Net CO2 Flux from Takahashi et al., 2002

7. northward
southward
northward
southward

9. Surface
Deep
Bottom

13. convection

14. Stratification under a full sea ice cover, Weddell sea
There is a lot of subsurface heat,
separated from the surface mixed
layer by a weak pycnocline.
Slight changes in stratification
would induce big changes in
vertical heat flux and of the winter
sea ice cover
The vertical heat flux in the southern ocean is in precarious balance. A slight change of the hydrological forcing can alter the stability of the upper layer, changing the deep to surface water heat flux, and sea ice budget. This apparently happened in the mid-1970s when a large area of the Weddell Sea did not freeze over even in the dead of winter. The Weddell Polynya marks a break down of southern ocean stratification resulting in deep reaching open ocean convection, competing for ocean ventilation with the “normal” continental slope plumes. Might this mode of stability become more or less common in the future?

15. Open ocean convection