Antarctic whirlpools impact ice melts

Small salty whirlpools underneath Antarctica could hold the key to understanding rates of ice shelf melting.

Australian National University researcher Bishakhdatta Gayen is closely examining the phenomenon on the frozen continent as part of a two-year project.

Specifically, he's looking at a millimetre-thick boundary layer of salty water between the southern ocean and the bottom of the Antarctic ice sheet.

Dr Gayen, who's based in Canberra, says the layer plays a big role in causing ice to melt but hasn't been explored in enough detail.

"While this layer is tiny, it could provide the key to more accurate projections of ice melt," he said.

"We need much more accuracy - that's the main thing that is lacking right now."

At the boundary level, salt and heat from the ocean interact with the ice producing tiny whirlpools which are thought to boost the rate of melting.

"When ice is melting it releases fresh water and it tries to go up because it is highly buoyant," Dr Gayen said.

"At the same time if there is a flow next to the ice, it can undergo instability"

The UN's World Meteorological Organisation said last month it was starting to see a "warming signal" in western Antarctica.

In July, an iceberg twice the size of Luxemberg broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf.

Dr Gayen received an RJL Hawke Postdoctoral Fellowship through the Australian government to undertake the research.

He'll feed data into a supercomputer the equivalent of 3000 regular processors to create simulations of how the whirlpools impact ice.

"If you run this thing on your desktop computer it would take you five years to have a result," he said.

"This is a long process."