Drivers of seasonal land-ice-flow variability in the Antarctic Peninsula ...

• Main Authors: Boxall, Karla, Christie, Frazer, Willis, Ian, Wuite, Jan, Nagler, Thomas, Scheiblauer, Stefan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union 2024
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarctica; Ice Shelf
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.109207; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/369362

Land-ice flow in Antarctica has experienced multi-annual acceleration in response to increased rates of ice thinning, ice-shelf collapse and grounding-line retreat. Superimposed upon this trend, recent observations have revealed that land-ice flow in the Antarctic Peninsula exhibits seasonal velocity variability, with distinct summertime speed-ups. The mechanism, or mechanisms, responsible for driving this seasonality are unconstrained at present, yet detailed, process-based understanding of such forcing will be important for estimating accurately Antarctica’s future contributions to sea level. Here, we perform time-series analysis on an array of remotely-sensed, modelled and reanalysis datasets to examine the influence of potential drivers of ice-flow seasonality in the Antarctic Peninsula. We show that both meltwater presence and ocean temperature act as statistically significant precursors to summertime ice-flow acceleration, although each elicit an ice-velocity response after a distinct lag, with the ...