There is one important point I neglected to mention. In the Schoof treatment sea water at the ice front is at freezing temperature. But as we know, CDW is warmer. Whether this is sufficient to remove the stagnation regimes i dont know, perhaps write to Schoof or Rignot ?
sidd,
Rignot's comments in the linked Washington Post article towards the end of this post, addresses the issue that you raise about the systemic impact of warmer CDW on both accelerating the melting of key Antarctic marine glaciers and the associated impact on the positive ice-climate feedback mechanism projected by Hansen et al (2016); which indicates that this process has already started.
Best,
ASLR
The linked open access reference studies AABW production in the Cape Darnley Polyna, adjoining Prydz Bay in East Antarctica. The reference concludes that: "Given the growing number of reports of accelerating and irreversible mass loss from Antarctica’s major ice sheets linked to increased oceanic heat input, it is likely that Antarctica’s AABW production is already compromised and will decrease further into the future." The reference implies that the AABW is the "canary in the coal mine" for Hansen et al (2016)'s slowing of the global thermohaline circulation, which should result in a positive ice-climate feedback that may increase the planetary energy imbalance as indicated by the attached Figure 7 from Hansen et al (2016):
G. D. Williams, L. Herraiz-Borreguero, F. Roquet, T. Tamura, K. I. Ohshima, Y. Fukamachi, A. D. Fraser, L. Gao, H. Chen, C. R. McMahon, R. Harcourt & M. Hindell (August 23 2016), "The suppression of Antarctic bottom water formation by melting ice shelves in Prydz Bay", Nature Communications, Volume: 7, Article number: 12577, doi:10.1038/ncomms12577
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2016/160823/ncomms12577/full/ncomms12577.htmlAbstract: "A fourth production region for the globally important Antarctic bottom water has been attributed to dense shelf water formation in the Cape Darnley Polynya, adjoining Prydz Bay in East Antarctica. Here we show new observations from CTD-instrumented elephant seals in 2011–2013 that provide the first complete assessment of dense shelf water formation in Prydz Bay. After a complex evolution involving opposing contributions from three polynyas (positive) and two ice shelves (negative), dense shelf water (salinity 34.65–34.7) is exported through Prydz Channel. This provides a distinct, relatively fresh contribution to Cape Darnley bottom water. Elsewhere, dense water formation is hindered by the freshwater input from the Amery and West Ice Shelves into the Prydz Bay Gyre. This study highlights the susceptibility of Antarctic bottom water to increased freshwater input from the enhanced melting of ice shelves, and ultimately the potential collapse of Antarctic bottom water formation in a warming climate."
Extract: "There has been a lot of attention recently on the decadal-scale impact of icescape changes to AABW, resulting from major ice front calving events in polynyas regions, such as along Adélie Land after the calving of the Mertz Glacier. This study suggests the more ubiquitous process of enhanced ocean/ice shelf interaction could be a far greater long-term threat to AABW production. Given the growing number of reports of accelerating and irreversible mass loss from Antarctica’s major ice sheets linked to increased oceanic heat input, it is likely that Antarctica’s AABW production is already compromised and will decrease further into the future."
See also:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/23/how-elephant-seals-in-antarctica-are-helping-to-reveal-another-threat-caused-by-melting-ice/?utm_term=.42f9a2381634Extract: "The new study “significantly improves our understanding of the details of bottom water production around Antarctica,” said Rahmstorf, who was not involved in the new research, by email. “Scientists have long feared that global warming will slow down this vital process of deep and bottom water production, both in the North Atlantic and in Antarctic waters. With too much global warming, a critical threshold could be crossed where this process grinds to a halt, with incalculable and potentially catastrophic consequences for marine life and climate.”
Rahmstorf isn’t the only researcher concerned about this issue, either. It’s a key component of a recent paper led by former NASA scientist James Hansen, now at Columbia University’s Earth Institute. The paper outlines a dire scenario in which even 2 degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels could lead to “dangerous” global consequences.
One of the paper’s key points is that rapid melting of both the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets may not only contribute to dramatic sea-level rise in the next century, but also affect the world’s oceans in profound ways — including freshening the water at the poles and contributing to a slowdown of the oceans’ overturning circulation.
The new paper “tends to confirm one of the principal phenomena that we were drawing attention to: the effect of freshwater from ice shelves reducing [Antarctic bottom water] formation,” Hansen told The Post by email. “We concluded that this process, slowing down on Antarctic bottom water formation, has already begun.”
…
“While this particular area may not be the hotspot for this kind of activity, the fact that we have all the main players makes it a very unique lab experiment to try to understand how it works,” Williams said. “It provides observational evidence which should renew efforts to look for this happening in more key areas of Antarctica where we do know there’s accelerating melt occurring and where bottom water production is important as well.”"