Data from: Interannual variations in meltwater input to the Southern Ocean from Antarctic ice shelves

• Main Authors: Adusumilli, Susheel, Fricker, Helen A., Medley, Brooke C., Padman, Laurie, Siegfried, Matthew R.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: UC San Diego Library Digital Collections 2020
• Subjects: Ice shelves; Firn layer; Antarctica; Melt rates; Antarctic; Southern Ocean; Antarc*; Ice Sheet; Ice Shelf; Ice Shelves
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6075/j04q7sht; http://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb0448974g

Ocean-driven basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is the largest component of ice sheet mass loss, influencing grounded-ice dynamics and the global ocean. Existing datasets do not represent the known time and space variability of melt rates around Antarctica, leading to unrealistic forcing of ice sheet and climate models. Here, we use satellite radar altimeter data from 1994 to 2018, combined with satellite-derived velocities and a new model of the surface firn-layer evolution, to develop a map of high-resolution melt rates (2010-2018 average) and a time series of thickness changes for 1994-2018, for almost all ice shelf areas.