Nikhil Hale

Contact

Phone: 0210 517  964
Email: nikhil.hale@vuw.ac.nz
Office: CO531

Qualifications

BSc Savitribai Phule Pune University (2018); MSc Savitribai Phule Pune University (2020)
PhD Candidate in Geophysics

PhD thesis

Title

Circumpolar Deep Water vs Ross Sea Polynya: Past and Present

Supervisors

• Dr Alexandra Gossart
• Dr Alena Malyarenko

Project objectives and description

Ross Sea polynya is the largest coastal polynya that contributes significantly towards the production of sea ice, formation of high salinity shelf water (HSSW), and thus, Antarctic bottom water, thereby playing a critical role in thermohaline circulation and global climate system. HSSW produced by it fills up the Ross Ice Shelf Cavity, restraining the advance warmer circumpolar deep water (CDW) in the cavity, which could drastically enhance basal melting. Despite such importance, polynya remained a poorly investigated phenomenon. Our research aims to use the High Resolution coupled model P-SKRIPS Ver1 developed for the Ross Sea to better understand the function of Ross Sea polynya in the present, how it was behaving in certain conditions in the past and how CDW responded to the polynya processes.