The Ross Sea Dipole – Temperature, Snow Accumulation and Sea Ice Variability in the Ross Sea Region, Antarctica, over the Past 2,700 Years

• Main Authors: Bertler, Nancy AN, Conway, Howard, Dahl-Jensen, Dorthe, Emanuelsson, Daniel B, Winstrup, Mai, Vallelonga, Paul T, Lee, James E, Brook, Ed J, Severinghaus, Jeffrey P, Fudge, Taylor J, Keller, Elizabeth D, Baisden, W Troy, Hindmarsh, Richard CA, Neff, Peter D, Blunier, Thomas, Edwards, Ross, Mayewski, Paul A, Kipfstuhl, Sepp, Buizert, Christo, Canessa, Silvia, Dadic, Ruzica, Kjær, Helle A, Kurbatov, Andrei, Zhang, Dongqi, Waddington, Ed D, Baccolo, Giovanni, Beers, Thomas, Brightley, Hannah J, Carter, Lionel, Clemens-Sewall, David, Ciobanu, Viorela G, Delmonte, Barbara, Eling, Lukas, Ellis, Aja A, Ganesh, Shruthi, Golledge, Nicholas R, Haines, Skylar A, Handley, Michael, Hawley, Robert L, Hogan, Chad M, Johnson, Katelyn M, Korotkikh, Elena, Lowry, Daniel P, Mandeno, Darcy, McKay, Robert M, Menking, James A, Naish, Timothy R, Noerling, Caroline, Ollive, Agathe, Orsi, Anaïs, Proemse, Bernadette C, Pyne, Alexander R, Pyne, Rebecca L, Renwick, James, Scherer, Reed P, Semper, Stefanie, Simonsen, Marius, Sneed, Sharon B, Steig, Eric J, Tuohy, Andrea, Venugopal, Abhijith Ulayottil, Valero-Delgado, Fernando, Venkatesh, Janani, Wang, Feitang, Wang, Shimeng, Winski, Dominic A, Winton, Victoria HL, Whiteford, Arran, Xiao, Cunde, Yang, Jiao, Zhang, Xin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2017
• Subjects: Climate Action; Antarctic; Ross Sea; West Antarctica; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; Siple; Talos Dome; Roosevelt Island; Siple Dome; Antarc*; Antarctica; ice core; Ice Sheet; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r39n0xj

Abstract. High-resolution, well-dated climate archives provide an opportunity to investigate the dynamic interactions of climate patterns relevant for future projections. Here, we present data from a new, annually-dated ice core record from the eastern Ross Sea. Comparison of the Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) ice core records with climate reanalysis data for the 1979–2012 calibration period shows that RICE records reliably capture temperature and snow precipitation variability of the region. RICE is compared with data from West Antarctica (West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core) and the western (Talos Dome) and eastern (Siple Dome) Ross Sea. For most of the past 2,700 years, the eastern Ross Sea was warming with perhaps increased snow accumulation and decreased sea ice extent. However, West Antarctica cooled whereas the western Ross Sea showed no significant temperature trend. From the 17th Century onwards, this relationship changes. All three regions now show signs of warming, with snow accumulation declining in West Antarctica and the eastern Ross Sea, but increasing in the western Ross Sea. Analysis of decadal to centennial-scale climate variability superimposed on the longer term trend reveal that periods characterised by opposing temperature trends between the Eastern and Western Ross Sea have occurred since the 3rd Century but are masked by longer-term trends. This pattern here is referred to as the Ross Sea Dipole, caused by a sensitive response of the region to dynamic interactions of the Southern Annual Mode and tropical forcings.