Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography
Abstract The Antarctic continent has not warmed in the last seven decades, despite a monotonic increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. In this paper, we investigate whether the high orography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) has helped delay warming over the continent. To that...
Published in: | npj Climate and Atmospheric Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w |
id |
crspringernat:10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crspringernat:10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w 2023-05-15T14:07:04+02:00 Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography Singh, Hansi A. Polvani, Lorenzo M. 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY npj Climate and Atmospheric Science volume 3, issue 1 ISSN 2397-3722 Atmospheric Science Environmental Chemistry Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w 2022-01-04T13:05:55Z Abstract The Antarctic continent has not warmed in the last seven decades, despite a monotonic increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. In this paper, we investigate whether the high orography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) has helped delay warming over the continent. To that end, we contrast the Antarctic climate response to CO 2 -doubling with present-day orography to the response with a flattened AIS. To corroborate our findings, we perform this exercise with two different climate models. We find that, with a flattened AIS, CO 2 -doubling induces more latent heat transport toward the Antarctic continent, greater moisture convergence over the continent and, as a result, more surface-amplified condensational heating. Greater moisture convergence over the continent is made possible by flattening of moist isentropic surfaces, which decreases humidity gradients along the trajectories on which extratropical poleward moisture transport predominantly occurs, thereby enabling more moisture to reach the pole. Furthermore, the polar meridional cell disappears when the AIS is flattened, permitting greater CO 2 -forced warm temperature advection toward the Antarctic continent. Our results suggest that the high elevation of the present AIS plays a significant role in decreasing the susceptibility of the Antarctic continent to CO 2 -forced warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet Springer Nature (via Crossref) Antarctic The Antarctic npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 3 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crspringernat |
language |
English |
topic |
Atmospheric Science Environmental Chemistry Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Atmospheric Science Environmental Chemistry Global and Planetary Change Singh, Hansi A. Polvani, Lorenzo M. Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric Science Environmental Chemistry Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Abstract The Antarctic continent has not warmed in the last seven decades, despite a monotonic increase in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. In this paper, we investigate whether the high orography of the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) has helped delay warming over the continent. To that end, we contrast the Antarctic climate response to CO 2 -doubling with present-day orography to the response with a flattened AIS. To corroborate our findings, we perform this exercise with two different climate models. We find that, with a flattened AIS, CO 2 -doubling induces more latent heat transport toward the Antarctic continent, greater moisture convergence over the continent and, as a result, more surface-amplified condensational heating. Greater moisture convergence over the continent is made possible by flattening of moist isentropic surfaces, which decreases humidity gradients along the trajectories on which extratropical poleward moisture transport predominantly occurs, thereby enabling more moisture to reach the pole. Furthermore, the polar meridional cell disappears when the AIS is flattened, permitting greater CO 2 -forced warm temperature advection toward the Antarctic continent. Our results suggest that the high elevation of the present AIS plays a significant role in decreasing the susceptibility of the Antarctic continent to CO 2 -forced warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Singh, Hansi A. Polvani, Lorenzo M. |
author_facet |
Singh, Hansi A. Polvani, Lorenzo M. |
author_sort |
Singh, Hansi A. |
title |
Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
title_short |
Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
title_full |
Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
title_fullStr |
Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
title_full_unstemmed |
Low Antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
title_sort |
low antarctic continental climate sensitivity due to high ice sheet orography |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-020-00143-w |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Ice Sheet |
op_source |
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science volume 3, issue 1 ISSN 2397-3722 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-020-00143-w |
container_title |
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766278989547044864 |