Inter-decadal climate variability induces differential ice response along Pacific-facing West Antarctica ...

• Main Authors: Christie, Frazer DW, Steig, Eric J, Gourmelen, Noel, Tett, Simon FB, Bingham, Robert G
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Research 2023
• Subjects: Antarctica; West Antarctica; West Antarctic Ice Sheet; glaciology,; remote sensing; Pine Island Glacier; Thwaites Glacier; grounding line; Landsat; Sentinel; TerraSAR-X; Amundsen Sea; Antarctic; Bellingshausen Sea; Pacific; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Pine Island
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.92829; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/345407

West Antarctica has experienced dramatic ice losses contributing to global sea-level rise in recent decades, particularly from Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers. Although these ice losses manifest an ongoing Marine Ice Sheet Instability, projections of their future rate are confounded by limited observations along West Antarctica’s coastal perimeter with respect to how the pace of retreat can be modulated by variations in climate forcing. Here, we derive a comprehensive, 12-year record of glacier retreat around West Antarctica’s Pacific-facing margin and compare this dataset to contemporaneous estimates of ice flow, mass loss, the state of the Southern Ocean and the atmosphere. Between 2003 and 2015, rates of glacier retreat and acceleration were extensive along the Bellingshausen Sea coastline, but slowed along the Amundsen Sea. We attribute this to an interdecadal suppression of westerly winds in the Amundsen Sea, which reduced warm water inflow to the Amundsen Sea Embayment. Our results provide direct ...