It seems the Maud Rise Polynya (aka Weddell Sea Polynya) is open again, but still quite small.
A #polynya is an area of open water within the #seaice cover.
The #polynya in the Maud Rise region appears from time to time and is an interesting phenomenom to explain or observe with #satellite data (many papers!).
It seems we are lucky and #MODIS got a view of the polynya between the clouds yesterday.
@tobias1hoffmann @ClnHz @seaice
Hello Tobias. One of the main drivers for having a #polynya at this location is ocean bottom topography, e.g. Holland (2001).
But why it opens some years and not other years is still not settled (?) and apparently linked to weather events (cyclones, atmospheric rivers) e.g. Francis et al. (2019).
But Céline (@ClnHz) know much more than I do !
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1059322
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030618
@tobias1hoffmann @ClnHz @seaice
From the operational oceanography side, we get quite frequent images of the #polynya from a variety of satellite missions (radars, optical, passive microwave,...) We have some in-situ obs of the water column.
I do not think we have skillful short-range forecasts of the opening of the #polynya (or I do not know about them).
Thomas Lavergne
Tobias Hoffmann