The Antarctic Slope Current (ASC), along with the Antarctic Slope Front (ASF), usually play an important role in modulating the cross-shelf water masses exchanges in the East Antarctica. Along certain stretches of the continental shelf, particularly where a submarine trough exists, density surfaces connect the shelf waters to the mid-depth warm deep water offshore, offering a pathway for warm Deep Water directly onto the continental shelf. Using an eddy-resolving coupled idealized ocean-ice shelf model of the ASC and the ASF, we show that the joint effects of baroclinic and relief can supply a dynamically significant onshore transport of heat and mass across the continental shelf break. The shoreward transport is characterized by a topography beta spiral pattern, while the shoreward Deep Water transport is sensitive to the strength of the ASC. In addition, the topography Rossby Wave also substantially contributes to the breaking of the alongshore potential vorticity barrier.

circumpolar deep water, ice shelf, antarctic slope current, antarctica slope front