Abstract Global warming and its consequences on polar regions have been thoroughly discussed in recent times. One of those consequences is the freshwater flux and the associated cooling and freshening that result from iceberg melting. Despite the potential impact, large uncertainties exist resulting mostly from the complexity to follow icebergs from space, which make the few existing estimates essentially model-based. This study takes advantage of state-of-art machine learning methods to present novel prevalent trajectories and potential freshwater input from 450 icebergs ranging from 1 to 2765 km2 across the northwestern Weddell Sea, Antarctica. The main results highlight the predominance of a northward flux and the entrance of icebergs up to 10 km2 into Bransfield Strait associated with the main current systems along the Antarctic Peninsula. The present analysis on such a large number of icebergs unveils an average drift speed of 3.4 ± 2.7 km day-1 and an average disintegration rate of ~62% per year, representing an integrated potential regional freshwater input of 133.62 Gt yr-1. Altogether, this study adds new knowledge to the complex problem of autonomous applications for iceberg detection and tracking, further exploring such methods on a very dynamic region of singular importance for the ocean and climate studies.

O OCCAM (Ocean Circulation and Climate Advanced Modelling Project) é um dos modelos de circulação global que vem sendo bastante utilizado pela comunidade oceanográfica brasileira, principalmente em estudos de modelagem numérica regional, onde fornece condições iniciais e de contorno para modelos numéricos mais detalhados da circulação. Este trabalho visa, através do conceito de massas de água, comparar no âmbito anual, os dados do OCCAM com: i) os dados climatológicos de temperatura e salinidade do NODC (National Oceanographic Data Center) e ii) os transportes de volume associados a estas massas de água, de acordo com os valores disponíveis na literatura. Os níveis de comparação foram escolhidos de forma a representar o núcleo das principais massas de água que compõe o Atlântico Sul e os sistemas de correntes que são descritos através dos transportes de volume associados às massas de água. Os principais resultados indicam que o modelo é capaz de representar realisticamente a estrutura vertical das principais correntes na região de estudo e as massas de água associadas. Na parte mais equatorial do giro subtropical o modelo apresenta, por exemplo, a migração zonal e para sul da bifurcação da Corrente Sul Equatorial com o aumento da profundidade. Segundo o OCCAM e para o nível da Água Tropical, esta bifurcação ocorre entre as latitudes de 9ºS-15ºS, migrando para 25ºS no nível da Água Central do Atlântico Sul e entre 25ºS-30ºS para o nível da Água Intermediária Antártica. A Água Profunda do Atlântico Norte, integrante da circulação termohalina, é representada pelo modelo com um transporte líquido para sul variando entre 15 Sv e 20 Sv ao longo da região de estudo e em concordância com o observado na literatura.

The OCCAM (Ocean Circulation and Climate Advanced Modeling Project) is one of the global ocean circulation models which has been commonly used by the Brazilian oceanographic community. In most cases it is associated to regional numerical modeling studies, where it provides initial and boundary conditions for higher resolution models. The aim of this work, based on the concept of water masses, is to compare on an annual basis, the OCCAM with the use of: i) climatological temperature and salinity data from the NODC (National Oceanographic Data Center) and ii) volume transports associated with the water masses and based on values available in the literature. The selected levels of comparison were chosen to represent the core of the main water masses of the South Atlantic and the associated currents, described based on their volume transports. The main results indicate that the model is capable of representing realistically the vertical structure of the main currents and the associated water masses for the study region. In the equatorial portion of the subtropical gyre the model shows, for example, the southward zonal migration of the South Equatorial Current bifurcation with the increase of depth. According to the model and for the Tropical Water level, the bifurcation occurs between 9ºS-15ºS, moving to 25ºS at the level of the South Atlantic Central Water and between 25ºS-30ºS at the level of the Antarctic Intermediate Water. The North Atlantic Deep Water, which is part of the thermohaline circulation, is represented in the model with a net southward transport between 15 Sv and 20 Sv for the region of study and is in agreement with the literature values.