Upper ocean variability in west Antarctic Peninsula continental shelf waters as measured using instrumented seals

Temperature profile data for the west Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) continental shelf waters, collected from freely ranging instrumented seals (crabeater, Lobodon carcinophagus and leopard, Hydrurga leptonyx), were used to demonstrate that these platforms can be used to supplement traditional oceanographic sampling methods to investigate the physical properties of the upper water column. The seal-derived profiles were combined with temperature profiles obtained from ship-based CTD measurements and from a numerical circulation model developed for the WAP to describe changes in temperature structure, heat content, and heat flux in the upper ocean waters of the WAP continental shelf. The seal-derived data documented the fall-to-winter transition of the surface waters and the shelf-wide presence of modified Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW) below 150–200 m on the WAP continental shelf. The heat content of the upper 200 m calculated from the seal-derived temperature profiles ranged between 1000 and 1500 MJ m−2; similar estimates were obtained from simulated temperature distributions. The seal-derived temperature measurements provided broader space and time resolution than was possible using any other currently available oceanographic sampling method. As such, the seal-derived measurements provided a valuable dataset for evaluation of temperature fields obtained from a numerical circulation model.