The Response of the Southern Ocean to Climatological Iceberg Freshwater Forcing

The Response of the Southern Ocean to Climatological Iceberg Freshwater Forcing | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The Response of the Southern Ocean to Climatological Iceberg Freshwater Forcing Jingwei Zhang, Xuebin Zhang, Matt A. King, Kewei Lyu This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6698270/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 10 Nov, 2025 Read the published version in Climate Dynamics → Version 1 posted 5 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Antarctic icebergs, as a moving source of freshwater while drifting in the Southern Ocean, have been suggested to play a significant role in altering water masses and sea ice dynamics, especially during recent increases in Antarctic ice discharge. Many current climate models, however, misrepresent Antarctic iceberg melt by assuming it is released along the coast, largely due to the lack of comprehensive assessments that quantify the associated biases and capture the full impacts of this assumption on sea ice and ocean dynamics. In this study, we investigate how the spatial distribution of iceberg melt influences the Southern Ocean by implementing a recent simulation of iceberg melt pattern into a global ocean–sea ice model. Our results show that widespread iceberg melt decreases surface salinity and enhances stratification, which suppresses vertical convection and mixing. This, in turn, reduces upward heat transport, leading to subsurface heat accumulation, surface cooling, and enhanced formation of sea ice and Antarctic Bottom Water. Additionally, we emphasize the importance of incorporating a more realistic distribution of iceberg melt into ocean models, which can reduce the model bias of salinity and temperature climatology by ~ 30% compared with observations in the high latitudes of the Southern Ocean. Our results underscore the necessity of considering iceberg drifting pattern in climate/ocean models. Current models that neglect drifting icebergs should be interpreted by incorporating findings from this study. Iceberg melt Southern Ocean Climate modeling Antarctic meltwater AABW formation Full Text Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation1.docx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 10 Nov, 2025 Read the published version in Climate Dynamics → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Major Revision 08 Jul, 2025 Reviewers agreed at journal 02 Jun, 2025 Reviewers invited by journal 29 May, 2025 Editor assigned by journal 27 May, 2025 First submitted to journal 19 May, 2025 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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