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The Flow of Dense Water Plumes in the Western Weddell Sea Simulated with the Finite Element Ocean Model (FEOM)

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Abstract

Ocean simulations performed with the Finite Element Ocean Model (FEOM) were used to show the relevance of the location of the dense water plume source on the western Weddell Sea continental shelf. When the plume starts close to the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula it flows into Bransfield Strait, but if it is found further south it can flow down the slope and contribute to Weddell Sea Deep Water (WSDW). The influence of density on the spreading was also tested indicating that a denser plume reaches greater depths while lighter plumes do not interact with the WSDW.

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Acknowledgments

We would like thank Mauricio Mata and Oliver Huhn (reviewers) for their comments to improve this manuscript and the suggestions for the future work. The first author was supported by CNPq grant 290034/2011-6.

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Correspondence to Mathias Rucker van Caspel .

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van Caspel, M.R., Absy, J.M., Wang, Q., Hellmer, H.H., Schröder, M. (2015). The Flow of Dense Water Plumes in the Western Weddell Sea Simulated with the Finite Element Ocean Model (FEOM). In: Lohmann, G., Meggers, H., Unnithan, V., Wolf-Gladrow, D., Notholt, J., Bracher, A. (eds) Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach in Earth System Science. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13865-7_14

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