Hanzhou Xie, Yu Liu, Guoqing Han, Xiayan Lin
The widely active mesoscale processes in the Canada Basin, such as subsurface eddies, have a significant impact on the heat redistribution in the upper ocean and sea ice dynamics. This study utilized MITgcm LLC4320 high-resolution (1/48°) simulation data to track an anticyclonic warm eddy generated by a meandering flow near the southern continental slope of the Canada Basin. The results showed that the heat content of the eddy underwent four stages of evolution before and after entering the sea ice–covered area: transformation in the jet stream region, dissipation after leaving the sea ice, rapid decay at the ice edge, and stabilization under the ice. Within the boundary current, the heat content initially decreased and then increased. During detachment from the current, it decreased from 7.55 × 10 8 J m −2 to 6.93 × 10 8 J m −2 ; after entering the ice-edge zone, surface cooling caused a rapid decline to 5.9 × 10 8 J m −2 . Once fully beneath the sea ice, the heat content stabilized (approximately 5.8 × 10 8 J m −2 ), indicating that the eddy primarily transported heat over long distances through advective processes. During this phase, the efficiency of anomalous heat transport was mainly limited by the reduced translation speed of the eddy under the ice. The aforementioned stages of thermal evolution could represent a characteristic behavior pattern for anticyclonic warm eddies entering the ice-covered regions in this area. These results underscore the crucial role of mesoscale dynamics in controlling heat transport and thermohaline coupling in the Arctic Ocean.