Polynyas are an extremely important component of Earth’s cryosphere; they produce new sea ice and generate the deep water important in global ocean circulation. Open ocean polynyas are a poorly understood and difficult to observe type of polynya, but are nonetheless linked to open ocean deep convection.

I will give an overview of both open ocean deep convection and open ocean polynyas, discuss the most recent observational connection between the two systems, and present relevant MITgcm simulations.