How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study
Warming-induced topographic changes of the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) during the Pliocene warm period could have a significant influence on the climate. However, how large changes in the EAIS height could theoretically affect global climate have yet to be studied. Here, the influence of possibl...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:cp102113 2023-05-15T14:13:18+02:00 How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study Huang, Xiaofang Yang, Shiling Haywood, Alan Tindall, Julia Jiang, Dabang Wang, Yongda Sun, Minmin Zhang, Shihao 2023-03-31 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/731/2023/ eng eng doi:10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/731/2023/ eISSN: 1814-9332 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 2023-04-03T16:23:10Z Warming-induced topographic changes of the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) during the Pliocene warm period could have a significant influence on the climate. However, how large changes in the EAIS height could theoretically affect global climate have yet to be studied. Here, the influence of possible height changes of the EAIS on climate over the East Antarctic ice sheet region versus the rest of the globe is investigated through numerical climate modeling using the Pliocene as a test case. As expected, the investigation reveals that the reduction of ice sheet height leads to a warmer and wetter East Antarctica. However, unintuitively, both the surface air temperature and the sea surface temperature decrease over the rest of the globe. These temperature changes result from the higher air pressure over Antarctica and the corresponding lower air pressure over extra-Antarctic regions with the reduction of EAIS height. This topography effect is further confirmed by energy balance analyses. These findings could provide insights into future climate change caused by warming-induced height reduction of the Antarctic ice sheet. Text Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica The Antarctic Climate of the Past 19 3 731 745 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
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English |
description |
Warming-induced topographic changes of the East Antarctic ice sheet (EAIS) during the Pliocene warm period could have a significant influence on the climate. However, how large changes in the EAIS height could theoretically affect global climate have yet to be studied. Here, the influence of possible height changes of the EAIS on climate over the East Antarctic ice sheet region versus the rest of the globe is investigated through numerical climate modeling using the Pliocene as a test case. As expected, the investigation reveals that the reduction of ice sheet height leads to a warmer and wetter East Antarctica. However, unintuitively, both the surface air temperature and the sea surface temperature decrease over the rest of the globe. These temperature changes result from the higher air pressure over Antarctica and the corresponding lower air pressure over extra-Antarctic regions with the reduction of EAIS height. This topography effect is further confirmed by energy balance analyses. These findings could provide insights into future climate change caused by warming-induced height reduction of the Antarctic ice sheet. |
format |
Text |
author |
Huang, Xiaofang Yang, Shiling Haywood, Alan Tindall, Julia Jiang, Dabang Wang, Yongda Sun, Minmin Zhang, Shihao |
spellingShingle |
Huang, Xiaofang Yang, Shiling Haywood, Alan Tindall, Julia Jiang, Dabang Wang, Yongda Sun, Minmin Zhang, Shihao How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
author_facet |
Huang, Xiaofang Yang, Shiling Haywood, Alan Tindall, Julia Jiang, Dabang Wang, Yongda Sun, Minmin Zhang, Shihao |
author_sort |
Huang, Xiaofang |
title |
How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
title_short |
How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
title_full |
How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
title_fullStr |
How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
title_full_unstemmed |
How changing the height of the Antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-Pliocene case study |
title_sort |
how changing the height of the antarctic ice sheet affects global climate: a mid-pliocene case study |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/731/2023/ |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet |
op_source |
eISSN: 1814-9332 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/19/731/2023/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-731-2023 |
container_title |
Climate of the Past |
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19 |
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3 |
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731 |
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745 |
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1766285735696007168 |